November 30, 2017

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the California Aggie

SERVING THE UC DAVIS CAMPUS AND COMMUNITY SINCE 1915

THEAGGIE.ORG

VOLUME 136, ISSUE 9 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

IAN JONES / AGGIE

MARK HONBO / UC DAVIS ATHLETICS

Unprecedented voter turnout at only 4.4 percent of student body

BY AL LY RUSSEL L campus@theaggie.org

Votes counted on Friday, Nov. 17 confirmed all six uncontested candidates who ran for Senate in the Fall Election as ASUCD senators.

With a total undergraduate population of around 30,000, only 1,289 students voted this year — a 4.4 percent voter turnout. With the historically low average voter turnout ranging around 8 percent, this election’s turnout was especially disappointing.

ASUCD President Josh Dalavai, a fourth-year political science major, was disappointed with the voter turnout.

“It was abysmal, and I can’t water that down,” Dalavai said.

The newly-elected senators were able to attend the fall ASUCD Summit that usually conflicts with candidate campaigns.

“The only positive thing about the election being uncontested was that we had time for more in-depth training,” Dalavai said. “I actually think they’re going to be better equipped.”

Dalavi also said that he did not necessarily believe that the uncontested state of the Fall Election

will carry over into the Winter Election. Dalavai said that many students have already reached out with serious interest in running during the Winter Election, partially because of this uncontested election.

“It was somewhat of a rude awakening, with promise for the future,” Dalavai said.

Gaven Kaur, a second-year psychology and communication double major, came first in the Fall Election, with 344 votes. Kaur is one of the only candidates who has previous experience working with ASUCD, working as a Senate staffer last year. Her platform focused on advocating for self-care, improving freshmen resources on campus and creating a streamlined letter of recommendation program for students.

Along with her experience with ASUCD, Kaur was also the only female candidate running.

“For me, I think getting the highest number of votes is an achievement for all the women on campus,” Kaur said. “As the only woman running, I hope that I represented our female population well.”

Kaur is already looking forward to her first few weeks in office.

“When my term begins, I’ll be meeting with

organization leaders on campus that are supportive of my platforms so that I can potentially collaborate with them to implement my ideas,” Kaur said.

After Kaur, second-year economics major Andreas Godderis received 321 votes. Danny Halawi, a second-year applied mathematics major, received 225; Bryan Perez, a second-year managerial economics and political science double major, received 167; Jesse Kullar, a second-year chemical engineering major, received 133 and Jake Sedgley, a third-year economics and environmental policy analysis and planning double major, received 99 votes.

Kaur, Godderis, Perez and Sedgley ran as independent candidates while Halawi and Kullar ran on the UCD Unite slate.

Godderis, who came in second place in the election, campaigned on his desire to bridge the clear divide between ASUCD and UC Davis students.

“To be totally frank, most students don’t know and don’t care about ASUCD,” Godderis said.

“It’s a senator’s job to reach out to student groups ELECTIONS on 9

ZOË REINHARDT / AGGIE

recap of uC regents November meeting UC Regents gather for bi-monthly meeting at UCSF

BY PRI YA N KA SHR E E DA R campus@theaggie.org

From Nov. 14 to 16, the UC Regents met for their regular bi-monthly meeting at UC San Francisco. Throughout the week, the Regents discussed a variety of topics, including student affairs, university and admissions policies and university interaction with the public.

One of the main focuses of the Nov. 14 meeting was approving investments related to pension and retirement and the improvement of policies on investment matters. The Investments Subcommittee is responsible for assisting the Board of Regents in overseeing the UC system’s endowment, planning and investment guidelines.

The Nov. 15 meeting agenda included presentations of topics by the following committees: public engagement and development, compliance and audit, governance and compensation, academic and student affairs and finance and capital strategies.

During the Compliance and Audit Committee meeting, Rachel Nava, the executive vice president and chief operating officer of the UC Office of the President, introduced the meeting’s goal.

“The purpose of our conversation this morning is just [to] provide you on an update on where we are with our audit implementation efforts related to the UCOP Audit of Administrative Expenditures that occurred earlier this year,” Nava said.

Matthew Hicks, the systemwide deputy audit officer for the UC Internal Audit Offices, provided an overview of the six-month status report on independent recommendations from the California State Auditor.

“As members of the committee will recall, the audit report contained 33 recommendations to UCOP, and UC agreed to implement all the recommendations,” Hicks said. “10 of the recommendations to UCOP will be due for completion in April 2018. Based on the target dates designated by the state auditor, the University believes that it is on track to implement those recommenda-

you’re invited!

32ND ANNUAL

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4:30—6:30pm, Veteran’s Memorial Center at 14th & B St A festive meal, offered COMPLETELY free of charge.

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tions by that date, and four of the 10 are already reported as completed.”

The Academic and Student Affairs Committee mainly discussed the Academic Verification Task Force. According the a press release from UCOP, the Task Force will be responsible for evaluating “current procedures and recommend policies and best practices in order to standardize and make UC’s academic verification process more effective, efficient and student-friendly.”

UC Provost Michael Brown began with a presentation of the three main findings from the initiation of the Academic Verification Task Force.

“I would like to highlight three major findings of the task force’s work,” Brown said. “The first finding [is] verifying students’ academic qualifications for admission [to] the University of California is important to ensure integrity and fairness within an admissions process that is highly competitive and to help ensure that students are REGENTS on 9

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New women's sports team to join uC Davis Athletics Compliance with Title IX, disproportionate gender ratio encourages advancement

BY VER ONI CA VAR GO sports@theaggie.org

An increase in the percentage of women at UC Davis has urged UC Davis Athletics to begin the process of adding a 15th varsity women’s sport. Outlined in a letter by Athletics Director Kevin Blue, the addition of this team is in compliance with Title IX requirements that require “fair and equitable athletic opportunities for male and female students.”

Given the increase in enrollment at UC Davis from 2011-12 of 55.1 percent women to 59.4 percent women currently, Blue noted in the letter that “The number of varsity athletics opportunities for female student-athletes has not changed as swiftly, this is why we are taking action to increase opportunities.”

Blue commented on the women to men ratio at UC Davis and what it means for the future of athletics.

“The substantial increase in female undergraduate students reflects a larger national trend,” Blue said via email. “UC Davis has been a historical leader in Title IX as it applies to intercollegiate sports, and we are proud that our leadership in this area will continue into the future.”

Blue added in the letter that the addition of a 15th women’s team exceeds “the national average of nine and Big West average of 10.”

With the addition of another team, UC Davis Athletics has assured that existing private and philanthropic support will continue to fund the programs to which they are directed to. In a Frequently Asked Questions page following the announcement with Blue, he said that “A primary criterion for selection is the amount of philanthropic support committed to support the addition of a new team.”

Blue also said via email, “We have been increasing the amount of private support for all of our teams, and we are expecting that a significant amount of private support will help launch the new team as well. There will also be institutional funds available to assist the new team and ensure that our university remains in compliance with Title IX, even after the significant undergraduate enrollment shift.”

The new women’s team is expected to begin operating with the start of the 2018-19 academic year following the decision of which sport will be added that takes place in Winter 2018. A committee that includes Blue, Campus Title IX Coordinator and Chief Compliance Officer Wendi Delmendo, Faculty Athletics Representative Scott Carrell, Campus Counsel Sheila O’Rourke, Interim Lead of Finance, Operations and Administration Kelly Ratliff and ASUCD President Josh Dalavai will decide which team should be added.

“It is too soon to determine which teams will be the most appropriate candidates,” Blue said via email. “Any member of the UC Davis community or public, including students, may nominate a team for consideration.”

Suggestions may be made online at a link provided in the online version of this story and on the FAQ page and can be submitted until Jan. 19, 2018.

“We will also be conducting a public forum for discussion on this topic at a date and time that will be determined in the next few weeks,” Blue said in his response to an FAQ. UC Davis Athletics is currently home to 23 varsity sports that include nine men’s programs and 14 women’s.

The addition of a sports team will be the latest amendment to the number of sports programs UC Davis has since the discontinuation of women’s rowing, wrestling, men’s swimming and diving and men’s indoor track in 2010.

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votes tallied for uncontested election

2 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SHANIAH BRANSON SWORN IN AS INTERIM SENATOR Branson hopes to help transfer students adjust, succeed

FARAH FARJOOD / AGGIE

BY C L A RA Z HAO campus@theaggie.org

On Oct. 26, third-year communication major Shaniah Branson was sworn in as the third ASUCD interim senator.

Branson is a transfer student from Hun-

tington Beach, Calif., where she attended Golden West College.

Branson was an active student leader at Golden West College and took on various roles within her community, including her position as president of the California statewide Alpha Gamma Sig-

Police Logs:

ma Honor Society and vice president of the Peace and Leadership Club.

“My community college experience was amazing, and I was honored as the Student of the Year at graduation,” Branson said.

Branson became interested in the interim senator position because she wanted to continue her leadership development and contribute to ASUCD’s mission of creating a fulfilling and comfortable experience for every student at UC Davis.

“During my time as interim senator, I want to focus on increasing the efforts of transfer and reentry student outreach and engagement,” Branson said. “I believe that the transfer and reentry student

Dartmouth professor, author supports those who fight against white supremacy, fascism

BY AARON LISS campus@theaggie.org

Nov. 15 “Reporting party is reporting that subject is at In-N-Out driveway exposing himself while urinating.”

“Checking parking signs for the run this weekend.”

“Apartment was vandalized by acquaintance on 11/11/2017.”

“Reporting party’s roommates all received a call from an unknown subject, the caller ID on their phones was the reporting party.”

Mark Bray, a Dartmouth history lecturer and author of the national bestseller “Antifa: The Anti-Fascist’s Handbook,” came to UC Davis on Nov. 16. Bray spoke in Voorhies Hall about anti-fascist movements throughout history and answered questions related to his book.

As well as researching anti-fascist history, Bray sometimes defends it. He has been on NBC’s Meet the Press, and conservative sites Breitbart and Campus Reform have criticized Bray’s support of anti-fascist groups and actions.

“I think it’s important for people of all walks of life [...] to take a clear stand against white supremacy,” Bray said. “I don’t hide my political perspectives.”

While being a researcher and often a supporter of antifa, Bray himself has no personal experience

Nov. 18 “Transient woman singing loudly in the area.”

Nov. 20 “Ongoing issue with chickens being within 40 feet of reporting party’s residence.”

with anti-fascist movements outside of journalism and academia.

“I don’t have personal experience doing this,” Bray said. “I think of my book as a kind of menu of resistance and encourage people to eat what they want.”

Bray explained the difficulty of defining fascism but did offer his own general description.

“Fascism is a source of danger but is also a symptom of underlying social problems,” Bray said. “Anti-fascism becomes a common sense response to a threat. It’s a self defense against the far right. It’s also a strategy of tactics of direct action. Fascism is not easy to define — historians can’t agree on a definition. We can think of it as a map of overlapping traits that grew out of the political context of post-WWI Europe, a return to a gendered, racial fantasy.”

The event began with English professor Joshua Clover introducing Bray and telling the audience that no filming or recording was permitted. This sparked an audience reaction from some of those already filming, who began to disrupt the event.

Bray stopped his presentation in the midst of this interruption. One of the individuals causing a disruption was removed when he refused to turn off his recording. Bray addressed the interruption after the man had been escorted out of the room.

“My guess is you don’t have innocent intentions in your recording,” Bray said. “If you go to places

and they tell you not to record, you respect that.”

Jose Lopez, a Davis community member who came to protest Bray’s message, was part of the right-wing group of men who interrupted Bray’s talk.

“We are in a public building, and it is a public school — these guys have a right to film if they wanted [to],” Lopez said.

Later, Bray mentioned that he “[doesn’t] mind recording” and that recording was not permitted at the request of the UC Davis event hosts.

During his powerpoint presentation, Bray delineated the history of anti-fascist movements, emphasizing those in 20th-century Europe.

“Some historians have argued seeing the KKK as an original proto-fascist organization,” Bray said.

“Likewise, we can look at some of the anti-Semitic leagues during the Dreyfus Affair. Fascism often follows in the heels of a revolutionary upsurge.”

According to Bray, an informal or disorganized rejection of white supremacy can be traced back to aggressive colonialism.

“Opposition to white-supremacy has existed since 1492, since the first slave ships, and is no way unique to the 21st century,” Bray said. “[We can] understand fascism as one facet of the global phenomenon of colonization and death brought home back to Europe.”

ANTIFA on 12

MOBILE ORDERING APP AIDS IMPACTED CAMPUS SERVICES

Should excellent customer service be sacrificed to accommodate hectic schedules?

Nov. 16 “Several cars parked in the fire lane.”

Nov. 17 “In the northbound lane on F Street, the left turn arrow not turning green.”

year-to-year, and we need to ensure that this is the case,” Branson said. “There also needs to be a stronger safety net of resources and overall accessibility [as well as] other ways to inform our students of campus resources and events.”

After her term as interim senator, Branson plans to run for a full term as an ASUCD senator to continue her efforts of helping the transfer and reentry student community as well as improve the overall transparency and accessibility of ASUCD. “Students need to know more about what ASUCD is up to,” Branson said.

“But, first things first, we need to make the ASUCD floor of the Memorial Union known. I am excited to be represent-

ANTI-FASCIST RESEARCHER MARK BRAY SPEAKS AT UC DAVIS

ALEXANDRA PRIMIANI / MELVILLE HOUSE PUBLISHING

Who let the chickens out?

community needs more consideration, as the spotlight is not equally shared with the incoming freshmen every year. As a transfer student, we have to overcome social and cultural barriers, get accustomed to a brand-new environment and ensure our transition is constructed properly so we may attain our degrees within the two years many of us plan to be here — this transition is not seamless.”

To better ensure that the needs of transfer and re-entry students are met, Branson discussed initiating early identification via social media, email or in-person tabling.

“We need to figure out what students need before they arrive here; students do not have the same accommodations from

KAILA MATTERA / AGGIE

BY STELLA SAPPINGTO N features@theaggie.org

The best solutions to systemic problems are often multilateral. Tapingo, the mobile ordering app recently introduced at the CoHo, the CoHo South Cafe and Biobrew, is no exception, as it manages to ameliorate the experience of the user, the typical

NORTH DAVIS LOT TO GO THROUGH HABITAT RESTORATION

VENOOS MOSHAYEDI / AGGIE

Restoration will give rise to ecological activity, encourage nature walks

customer and the front-of-house employee simultaneously. Not only are these parties eager to ease their lunchtime woes, but the user neither has to wait in line to order nor wait for their food. How does Tapingo accomplish so much? It’s only a tap, after all. The answer is best understood through the sentiments of Darin Schluep, the food service director of Associated Students Dining Services.

“The idea is it not only provides quicker service to those people that are utilizing the app but because they’re not in line ordering the line to order is shorter and the people walking in to order are having a quicker experience as well — that’s the hope,” Schluep said. “The great thing about Tapingo is it alleviates the need to wait in line to order as well as the need to wait for your food to be prepared and then wait in line to pay. Our hope was that as people start to use the app more and more [...] then

BY DYLAN SVOBODA city@theaggie.org

City-owned land in North Davis on the southwest corner of F Street and Anderson Road is set to undergo habitat restoration.

The project is set to restore the vacant lot to a California-native grassland with trees, shrubs and wildflowers. It is designed to complement the existing pond habitat by providing upland habitat with additional value for wildlife and public access.

“The overall design is open, allowing views of both the pond and the surrounding vistas to the East, North and South,” said Tracie Reynolds, the property management coordinator for the City of Davis and manager of the city’s Open Space Program. “In addition to the grassland, a hedgerow-style feature will be installed on a short slope along the west edge of the project area. The hedgerow will provide a buffer between humans and wildlife in the pond area as well as prevent encroachment of invasive weeds into the restoration zone.”

The site is set to be part of a growing ecological system in Davis and in surrounding areas.

“What is most important about this F

you won’t have people coming in seeing the lines and turning away because they don’t think they’ll be able to wait that long. We do our best to turn the lines over really quickly, but no matter what [...] not everybody has the time to wait. So we were hoping to alleviate some of those lines, alleviate some of the crowding in our dining room and hopefully capture more business that way.”

Schluep’s words allude to another feature of Tapingo: delivery. Students on campus, whether in the library or in student housing, can have CoHo treats delivered to a non-CoHo address, increasing access to good food and widening the breadth of business for the CoHo. Schluep is not the only person who understands the positive potential of Tapingo. ASUCD

and Anderson site is its spatial context,” said Patrick Huber, the chair of the Open Space and Habitat Commission. “It’s right next to the North Davis Pond, which functions as habitat [...] By bringing [the site] into Open Space management, we can have a well-connected ecological network on the North part of town and even beyond town.”

At the site, there is expected to be a walking path, interpretive panels and valley oak trees for shade. There is also the possibility of a bike crossing in the future.

“Once it is restored, I think it will be popular with people looking for a more natural walking experience through wildlife habitat,” Reynolds said. “The city’s greenbelts and parks are awesome and beautiful, but they are human-tended [and] contain turf and other non-native plants. The F and Anderson site will provide people with a more natural experience within the city limits.”

The City of Davis’ Open Space Program is undertaking the F and Anderson project.

The program was established in 1990 to implement longstanding policies that called for the protection of the farmlands and wild areas that surround the community.

The major goals of the program include

TAPINGO on 9

securing long-term protection of open space lands around Davis; providing and improving long-term management and monitoring of natural habitat and other open space values on city-owned lands; supporting the enjoyment of public open space lands, both within the city limits and in the broader Davis Planning Area; engaging citizens in planning and caring for open space areas and nurturing productive partnerships with other organizations, according to the Open Space Program’s website.

The program has led to the protection of about 5,300 acres of agricultural land and habitat areas surrounding the city through the acquisition of lands, either in fee titles or under conservation easements.

The program is funded mostly by Measure O, which was passed in November 2000. Measure O brings in more than $14 million in state and federal funding.

“Some recent projects [by the Open Space Program] include invasive Tamarisk control at South Fork, major vegetation control for public safety at Lincoln Highway and tree care with volunteers at multiple sites, among other things,” said Chris RESTORATION on 9

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017 | 3

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

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LAST WEEK’S ANSWERS

CHESS ANSWER we need to use the margins as a “fourth” piece to contain the king, many solutions request the use of margins but are not required

1. Kc2 Ka2 2. Nc1+ Ka1 3. Be5# Chess

BY AR I F R E E DMA N

This week’s chess puzzle will ask for creative and imaginative solutions, yes solutions plural.

White to move checkmate in two or three moves.... gotta catch ‘em all!

Hint: Get that major piece first!

Sudoku Enter digits from 1 to 9 into the blank spaces. Every row, column and 3x3 square must contain one of each digit. Each Sudoku has a unique solution that can be reached logically without guessing.

ASUCD

ice

C I T Y O F DAV I S

UNITRANS

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4 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

ZOË R E I N H A R DT / AG GI E

J ESSE ST ESHEN KO / AG GIE

CHALLAH FOR HUNGER ADDRESSES FOOD INSECURITY LOCALLY, NATIONALLY Davis Challah for Hunger chapter has student representative in Campus Hunger Project

BY EL I Z A BE T H M E R C A DO campus@theaggie.org

Challah For Hunger is a community service program with a mission to counter food insecurity on college campuses by baking challah, a traditional Jewish bread. There are CFH chapters at 86 campuses nationwide.

UC Davis’ CFH chapter recently sent Hana Minsky, a second-year plant biology major, to Philadelphia to represent the university on a national level for the nonprofit organization’s Campus Hunger Project. According to the CFH website, the Campus Hunger Project is a group of nine students from eight campuses creating “their own hypothesis for how to support their peers” who are food insecuretesting their projects on campus.

“Food insecurity is when you’re not sure when or where your next meal is coming from,” Minsky said. “It also means not having easy access to nutritious food. A good example people may not immediately consider is the ‘I can only afford ramen’ culture on college campuses.”

At Temple University in Philadelphia, Penn., Minsky and eight other representatives from USC, Temple University, Stanford University, the University of Arizona, Binghamton University, University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin, Madison, discussed their approaches to food insecurity and tailored initiatives to bring back with them.

“Many students have on-campus jobs in order to afford tuition and housing, and food often times comes second,” said Katherine Popovich, a fourthyear genetics major and the president of the CFH Davis chapter, in an email interview. “These students turn to on-campus farms that give out free vegetables or the food pantry, but many still don’t

know where their next meal might come from. I don’t think it’s something that’s [...] talked about among students, as people might be embarrassed to share they are food insecure” The University of California’s Global Food Initiative conducted an online survey in 2016 administered to 66,000 randomly selected students. Of the 9,000 who responded, 42 percent indicated they had “low” or “very low” food security. “[Food insecurity] is especially true for a lot of students because we don’t have a steady source of income, we’re very busy with school and lots of other commitments that we have,” said Jacob Newman, a third-year civil engineering and environmental engineering double major and the CFH treasurer.

Founded in 2010, CFH at UC Davis is composed of a board of 12 people, but is dependent on walk-in volunteers from other community service projects, fraternities or sororities and other individuals.

“In order to make so many loaves of bread we have to have the help of our awesome volunteers,” said Elissa Goldman, a fourth-year microbiology major and a member of CFH’s productions committee.

Proceeds from CFH are split between the Yolo County Food Bank and Mazon, an international Jewish nonprofit fighting hunger.

“We’ve donated over $17,000 to the Yolo County Food Bank, which has been able to provide around 52,500 meals to those in need in Yolo County,” Goldman said.

Challah for Hunger bakes and braids loaves every week at the Hillel House in Davis on A Street.

Interested volunteers can reach out to the organization at cfhdavisvolunteer@gmail.com.

GRADUATE STUDENT INSTRUCTORS: MORE THAN TA’S Associate instructors connect with students despite administrative challenges

BY G AB RIEL MULCAI R E features@theaggie.org

Some say that the best way to show your understanding of a concept is to explain it to someone else. That might be part of the reason why, for many graduate students, part of the path to their degree involves teaching.

Many graduate students at Davis lead discussion sections and assist professors as teaching assistants.

Others, known as associate instructors, teach entire classes on their own. A high volume of courses being taught by graduate students is sometimes seen as a negative for a university’s reputation, but not all students necessarily prefer classes taught by professors; graduate students may in fact have certain advantages as teachers. “[Classes taught by graduate students] feel more personal, in the sense that they are typically not as big as classes taught by professors, and in my opinion, the grad students come off as more approachable than most professors,” said Anthony Garcia, a fourth-year comparative literature major.

While teaching is a requirement for certain degrees, many graduate students relish the opportunity. For some, it’s even a primary goal of their studies, and some also believe that graduate students might have advantages when it comes to interacting with students.

“I think the fact that we’re younger and that we probably identify and sympathize more with the undergrads tends to level [the relationship] out,” said Duane Wright, a Ph.D. student and associate instructor in sociology. “Speaking for my department only, I think because this is a research university, the professors are here mostly to do research […] whereas a lot of the grad students that end up in this pro-

gram, because it’s not top-ranked, [are] not coming here expecting to end up in a research position. A lot of us, not everybody, but a lot of us want to go into teaching, so I think that orientation to research and teaching varies too, and that might affect our relationships with undergrads.”

Wright has been at Davis for seven years, but this quarter he’s teaching his first class, Sociology 1 — Introduction to Sociology. He’s happy about the opportunity, and surprised at the freedom he’s been given.

“There were absolutely no restrictions for me,” Wright said. “There was nothing like, ‘hey, these are the minimum requirements of what you should cover’, or ‘make sure you have this many papers’, or anything like that. It was just sort of like ‘hey, you’re hired, you’re teaching this’, and since then I’ve not heard anything, so I’ve been surprised at the level of autonomy. It’s pretty cool, actually, because sort of my hope has been to teach my own course, so to be able to do that already is kind of cool.”

This level of freedom is not shared by all associate instructors. In Spanish classes, for example, instructors have to follow a syllabus that is shared between all sections of a class.

“We do have less freedom, because they give us the days we have to give exams, we can’t switch any days around,” said Lani Lopez Bastidas, a Ph.D. student and associate instructor in Spanish. “We can’t say ‘I didn’t cover this in class yet’, we just need to cover it. If you don’t have time, you still need to do it somehow.”

These restrictions can make it difficult to provide a learning experience that is tailored to particular students.

GRADUATE TEACHERS on 9

SOCIAL MEDIA: DECADE OF CONNECTING, DISTRACTING STUDENTS Help or hinderance?

SHEREEN L EE / AGG IE

BY B EN JA M I N P O RT E R features@theaggie.org

Over the last 10 years, social media has transformed the way people interact and learn, for better and for worse, raising many questions about how it impacts education. In a recent interview with Axios, Facebook’s founding president Sean Parker made a few revealing remarks about the potential negative impacts of Facebook and other platforms like it.

“I don’t know if I really understood the consequences of what I was saying, because [of ] the unintended consequences of a network when it grows to a billion or 2 billion people,” Parker said. “It literally changes your relationship with society, with each other [...] It probably interferes with productivity in weird ways.”

With Facebook and other social media platforms exploding in popularity during the formative years of today’s college students, it’s worth considering whether UC Davis students generally view social media as a help or a hinderance in education.

On the positive side, social media, especially Facebook, is conducive to allowing students to coordinate more easily by creating pages and groups for specific class years, majors, clubs and courses.

“I’ve joined several groups for courses, like MCB 103, BIS 102, BIS 101, PHY 7C,” said Simranjeet

Benipal, a fourth-year biochemistry major. “I usually don’t join them initially, but in the past friends have let me know that I should because they might have answers to questions I have.”

Benipal noted that having easy access to friends as resources through social media can make things more convenient by allowing students to move at their own pace and perhaps avoid interacting with professors. While this may be helpful if students have difficulty with that type of interaction, it may also prevent those skills from being built.

“It can be a pain to go to office hours because coming up with smart questions can be difficult,” Benipal said. “It’s my personal belief that you learn better if you find a solution yourself [...] Talking to a professor in office hours or in lecture can be daunting. You don’t want to be the person who asks a stupid question.”

While many professors provide notes and study materials through their Canvas pages, student-run groups on Facebook can often be reliable sources for finding supplementary materials or for getting notes for classes when the professors don’t make notes readily available.

“Facebook pages for classes are helpful if someone needs help finding information for a class,” said Karen Zuniga, a fourth-year wildlife, fish and conservation biology major. “I’d say I join two groups

on average each quarter.”

On the other hand, Zuniga also pointed out some of the negative impacts that social media has on study habits. She indicated that having class resources readily available on social media through their peers can create a type of dependency.

“Sometimes, I don’t go to class because I know someone will post the notes,” Zuniga said. “However, if you totally slack off, that’s your fault.”

In addition to perhaps fostering dependence or incentivizing laziness, social media can also distract students during or outside of class. Computer science graduate student Parsoa Khorsand explained that social media can have good impacts for education, but he also admitted that he has allowed it to have a fairly large presence in his routine.

“It’s generally a positive thing,” Khorsand said.

“But with Twitter, I guess I’m kind of addicted to it. I have three desktop displays and Twitter is always open on one of them. I look at it every couple of minutes automatically. It probably has a negative effect.”

While the problem of checking phones in class is not always because of social media, social media certainly contributes to the problem. That said, students have varied opinions regarding whether this should be acceptable.

“Sometimes [a lecture] is a little boring so I take

out to my phone,” Zuniga said. “I obviously get less out of it, but it can make it more bearable. I try not to judge others when I see them do it because I know that that’s me sometimes.”On the other end of the spectrum, Benipal made it clear that he disagrees with the habit of checking phones during class and encourages students to listen to what the professor is saying.

While many people scroll through news feeds to briefly escape from a study session or a lecture, social media can also serve as a direct source of information that must be dealt with carefully. In an age with so much misinformation, it can often be difficult to separate fact from fiction, which makes social media sites potentially even more dangerous for influencing the way people think. Zuniga, Khorsand and Benipal all said that it’s important to try to remain objective and to let information discovered through social media simply stimulate curiosity about subjects rather than coax one’s own opinions too far in any direction.

“Sometimes [information I find on Facebook] makes me think about a topic more,” Zuniga said.

“Some people only rely on what they see on Facebook, but I’m always trying to balance it out to understand problems fully.”

FACEBOOK EFFECT on 9

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017 | 5

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Aggies of the Past A look at The California Aggie 40 years ago, alumni experiences in a different world

JA MIE C H E N / AG G I E

BY MA RLYS JE A N E features@theaggie.org

Forty years is a huge gap in time with lots of room for change. In 1977, the world was vastly different than it was in 1937, before World War II, the Civil Rights movement and humans walking on the moon. Today in 2017, with the advent of computers, cell phones and DNA testing, the difference from 1977 could not seem greater.

At UC Davis, the newspaper is one constant part of campus life that has existed for over 100 years.

But there are certainly differences between The California Aggie 40 years ago and today.

“I would type up a story on paper [with a typewriter], and then I would hand that story to one of the composing typists who would retype it into a machine that would spit out a little yellow tape that was about an inch thick,” said Derrick Bang, who graduated in 1977 as an English major with an emphasis in creative writing. “And then you’d run that tape through a machine, which would spit out a tape of column-wide strip of your story, and then that would be given to the layout people, […] and they would run the strips through a waxer […] so that it would

stick when you put it down. One story at a time.”

Bang started writing for The Aggie in the fall of 1974 as a second-year. He started at UC Davis as prevet but quickly realized that writing was his strong suit. After his stint as a reporter, Bang became the entertainment editor for his third and fourth years.

“We had no way of knowing how long or short the story had to be, so cuts would be made at the last second literally by taking pair of scissors and cutting out two paragraphs in order to get the story to fit with the ads,” Bang said. “That was one of the reasons we were there for so much time because it was a much more time-intensive process. When I wasn’t in class and not doing homework, I was there.”

As entertainment editor, Bang experienced an emerging entertainment scene in Davis. At the time, Davis only had two theaters and couldn’t accommodate the number of movies that were coming out.

Now it’s easy to look up movies and reviews at the click of a button, but Bang came up with the innovative idea to run listings of movies that were playing in Sacramento — something none of the other local papers were doing then.

“I knew that people were going to Sacramento [to watch movies],” Bang said. “So every Monday

Brody Fernandez, Eric Gudz, Dan Carson announce runs for Davis City Council Candidates for City Council discuss changes they hope to bring to Davis

N IC HO L AS C H A N / AGGI E

night I would spend two hours calling all of the managers in about 20 different movie theaters and finding out what they were going to be opening that coming Friday, which I would then run in Wednesday’s or Thursday’s paper.”

Today The Aggie runs once a week, but for a long time it was running daily, Monday through Friday.

Needless to say, staff members were constantly writing in order to fill the 14 to 16 pages of the daily paper.

“You ended up writing just a lot, and it seemed to me that it wasn’t unusual that you would write a story every day and sometimes more,” said Richard Moreno, a 1978 graduate who majored in political science.

“We used to have Associated Press, and we were able to plug in wire service stuff to fill some of the holes, but we always tried to make the front page as much as possible local stories in the school or city stories.”

During Moreno’s time with The Aggie, he was at one time or another a reporter, campus editor and city editor. He eventually became managing editor for an entire quarter before becoming ASUCD President. He worked closely with the editor-in-chief at the time, Rob Pattison, and the other staff to run a fun and professional paper.

“I really loved being managing editor,” Moreno said. “We did a lot of projects together, [...] and I think that’s part of what I liked, is we were a good team and we liked each other. I remember we did a series called ‘All the Chancellor’s Men,’ which obviously we’re talking about right after the book [‘All the President’s Men’] came out. [It was] a series on each of the vice presidents. It was always fun, there was a good staff of people that we worked with.”

The Aggie ran a few fun and creative projects at the time, including a daily soap opera known as “From the University Chronicles.” Every day ended with a cliffhanger, leaving readers begging for more.

“There was at that time so much freedom,” said Erin McGraw, who graduated in 1979 as an English major with a creative writing emphasis. “I could do anything I wanted to, and I could try anything. If I wanted to write a review in the form of a question and answer series, I could have. Anything would have been a totally reasonable thing to try, as long as I put

my back into it and as long as I didn’t make it a joke.

That was just super fun, it really was, it was awesome.”

McGraw worked at The Aggie as a writer for the entertainment desk. When she first started, she was assigned to cover a city hall meeting but soon discovered she prefered covering dance shows and classical music.

“I really did stay in my narrow little furrow, and I was cranking out all of these reviews which were fun for sure and allowed me to see performances and to hear performing arts and all kinds of stuff that I wouldn’t have been able to do on my own,” McGraw said. “There was wonderful, wonderful classical music that came to Davis.

There was a terrific arts scene in Davis in those days, and that was before the Mondavi Center.”

Throughout history, the public’s view of media has come in waves. Moreno said that despite the fact that The Aggie was underappreciated while she worked there, it was still seen in a positive light compared to the public’s opinion of news outlets in 2017.

“In those days there was the Davis Enterprise, and the Woodland Democrat had the Davis Edition [...] so I think that was always a challenge to try to get respect and have people look at the paper and consider us serious,” Moreno said. “[Students] don’t get the respect they deserve for the amount of work they put in. Especially in this new era of ‘fake news,’ it’s even harder. We were coming out of a post-Watergate period where there was a little higher opinion of news outlets.”

Despite these waves in attitudes through the years, something Bang, McGraw and Moreno all share is a deep reverence for journalism and journalists themselves. Working at The Aggie helped prepare them beyond college in various writing careers.

“Working at the Aggie prepared me for the 13 years that I was a desk editor at the Davis Enterprise, though one did not immediately follow the other, there’s no question that the experience of one led to the other,” Bang said. “Journalists are fabulous people and nothing distresses me more today than the realization that for about the past 18 months, journalists and journalism in general have been held and are being held in such low regard. I certainly hope that I live long enough to see that trend reversed.”`

BY H ADYA AMI N city@theaggie.org

dressing parking in the city, transit and traffic safety and the campaign of loving your neighbor, in order to increase cooperation with neighboring cities.

“I not only identify with the students and the young people, but at the same time I can identify as a 28-year-old college graduate and effectively represent that demographic as well,” Fernandez said. “I was born into a working-class family. My father was a janitor and my mother is a retired school bus driver — that’s what I’m proud of most — to be able to have tangible experiences with the middle-class constituents that work in Davis.”

Eric Gudz, a recent UC Davis graduate, is also one of the youngest candidates running for office.

They served as one of the architects for cannabis policy throughout the city and are on the Unitrans advisory, due to their experience with transportation research. Gudz became intimately familiar with particular issues and struggles that younger people were facing through their experiences both on and off campus.

“One of the biggest tragedies of Davis is that the connection we once had with the university is tragically under par and needs work,” Gudz said. “I want to build and provide for the next generation that will be a part of our Davis community, especially those that are struggling to find their place within our community. Front and center with that is issues around housing, the supply and condition specifically.”

The upcoming election to determine who will fill the opening spot on Davis City Council in 2018 has already sparked the campaigns of several candidates in the Davis community, including Brody Fernandez, Eric Gudz and Dan Carson. All three candidates have a variety of experiences and goals they wish to show to the city of Davis.

At age 28, Brody Fernandez is the youngest candidate running for city council and is an enrolled returning student at UC Davis. His interest in running for office sprouted from his ongoing experience within the Davis community over the past decade as both a student and an Uber and Lyft driver.

“When I started going out there and talking to the constituents, to the citizens of Davis, to my neighbors, I discovered that there are people in the city who have the same fervent passion about fixing these issues as I do,” Fernandez said. “When I moved to Davis, I recognized that there were so many similarities with my hometown and so much that I saw that was positive, but additionally I started to see things that could be fixed and could be changed for the better. And being a journalist, I wanted to stop writing and wanted to actually go out and do things.”

His campaign focuses on a variety of issues, including normalizing the housing market as well as ad-

6 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

Opinion the California Aggie

editorial board

EDITORIAL BOARD

Editorial Board meets with Chancellor May

BRYAN SYKES Editor-in-Chief

Gary May answers questions about first quarter in office

EMILY STACK Managing Editor HANNAH HOLZER Campus News Editor KAELYN TUERMER-LEE City News Editor TARYN DEOILERS Opinion Editor GILLIAN ALLEN Features Editor ALLY OVERBAY Arts & Culture Editor VERONICA VARGO Sports Editor HARNOOR GILL Science & Tech Editor

CHIARA ALVES New Media Manager BRIAN LANDRY Photo Director CHRISTIE NEO Design Director AMY YE Layout Director MAXINE MULVEY Copy Chief OLIVIA ROCKEMAN Copy Chief JAYASHRI PADMANABHAN Website Manager ALEX GUZMÁN Social Media Mangager CARAJOY KLEINROCK Newsletter Manager LAURIE PEDERSON Business Development Manager

The Editorial Board sat down with Chancellor Gary S. May last week to speak about current plans for UC Davis, challenges he faces and the future of the university. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. A longer version of this interview can be found on theaggie.org.

You've been meeting with people throughout the UC Davis community over the past few months, and through that you've also been meeting various legislators. Could you tell us about what you hoped to accomplish?

As a newcomer, I think it's incumbent upon me just to listen in my first few months here and not come in thinking I know all the answers. I wanted to get a feel for what the campus community and the surrounding community thought about Davis, where we stood and where we should go, things they like, things they didn't like. I've set up this listening tour and it started this summer with mostly the non-academic administrative units, and then after classes started I've been doing the academic units, and then sprinkled in there have been student organizations, alumni, clubs, government officials, et cetera. So, basically just to hear what people think and try to shape the agenda.

What do you foresee as your biggest challenge in the near future and in the long term?

The biggest challenges always revolve around resources.

I hate to boil everything down to money, but the truth is, and I may have said this in our last meeting, although the state has tried to become more supportive in recent years, the reality is that they're writing about 9 percent of our overall budget, and if you add the tuition in, it's maybe 20 percent. So we've got to do other things to make up for the other remaining 80 percent, and that includes research, that

includes philanthropy, fundraising, it includes other initiatives, auxiliaries in the state and various other things. We're going to have to get more involvement and more success in raising the resources we need to be prominent. In a microcosm, on a small scale, I just had a meeting with a donor in athletics, where basically the gist of the conversation is, "If you want to be a Division I program we need Division I donors," and I would extend that to say if we want to be a top five university we need top five donors. Right now, our alumni participation in giving is about 7 percent. Even the best public universities are up in the twenties. So it's going to be hard to get much higher than that. But you look at the privates, they're at 80, 90 percent. So we've got to somehow get over this hurdle that prevents you, when you graduate, from wanting to continue to be a participant, financially and otherwise, in the success of the university.

What do you think are possible steps that could be taken to address [the “It’s okay to be white” fliers recently found on campus], because we've seen this across the country.

I'm not sure. I struggle with it. You know, even when I wrote that article for you guys, my internal debate was whether to respond at all, but I decided that I should have some kind of response, and a measured, thoughtful response, not sort of an emotional, over the top response. Because I think that's kind of what the provocateurs want, is the emotional, over the top response. But at the same time, I realize students want to hear from the leadership when things like that happen, and I need to make people feel that we have your best interests at heart and there's no place for white supremacy or whatever type of negative sentiment that's being expressed.

I'm bringing this up so that you can tell me if you think that there are different things that we could or should do.

Fighting mental illness through organizations, social movements NONPROFITS HELP THOSE WHO STRUGGLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH FEEL LESS ALONE

BY JOLENA PACHECO mspacheco@ucdavis.edu It’s easy to feel alone while struggling with mental health. On one hand, the feeling of being alone is better than being surrounded with people because no one wants to negatively impact another’s positive mood. But on the other hand, being alone is not the best thing for someone who feels like they have nothing to live for. When living with a mental illness, it makes it difficult to find a place of belonging. When the topic isn’t openly discussed, it can feel like there is nowhere to turn to speak up about a personal experience.

I’m here to bring attention to social movements and organizations developed to advocate for mental health and provide an inclusive environment for people who live with mental illness. These organizations and movements are created for real people who have struggled with issues like depression, self-harm and suicide attempts. They bring awareness to the topic by sharing real people’s stories and to providing a place where people can feel safe enough to tell their own story. Society avoids speaking about mental illness, but these organizations fight back to reduce stigma and represent a mutual goal of a better life.

These organizations start with stories, which is how Jamie Tworkowski began his own, “To Write Love on Her Arms” (TWLOHA). In the beginning, it started out as a story based on his friend Renee and her struggle with depression, drug addiction and self-harm.

Renee had five days to clean herself up before she would be allowed into a rehabilitation program. Tworkowski spent those five days getting to know her as the person she was behind her mental illness. When she was accepted into the program, Tworkowski took her story and shared it on a Myspace page to bring awareness to mental health. He began selling t-shirts to provide funds for Renee’s treatment. The shirts had the words “To Write Love on Her Arms,” meaning that love is the most important thing we can give to people who struggle with mental illness. It alludes to the self-injury often inflicted on someone’s arm, aiming to replace that pain with love.

The movement became an official nonprofit organization in 2007 and began donating its profits from shirts and other merchandise toward treatment and recovery facilities. The group accepts messages from people around the world who wish to share their story and ask for advice. Some request to have their story shared on the organization’s blog to let others know they aren’t alone. And now, 10 years later, the

organization continues to provide an environment for open discussion, inclusivity and hope that life is worth living.

Another social movement on the rise is The Orange Project. The movement stemmed from a tragic story, in which a woman lost her partner to suicide after a battle with depression. She wanted to break the silence and spread the awareness that suicide deserves. Among adolescents, suicide is the second leading cause of death and is referred to as a “global epidemic” — yet it’s rarely talked about. This project is meant to call attention to young adults and ask them to share handwritten notes of hope and inspiration on orange post-its. The color offers emotional strength and represents positivity to encourage communication. As the campaign travels to several locations, the vibrant color also catches the attention of passersby. The movement exists to provide a place for everyone to share their words of encouragement and let others know they aren’t alone.

These organizations are created from real stories of real people, which adds to their significance. They are created as support systems to give people who struggle with mental illness a place where they feel included in something. We aren’t alone, we never were and we never have to be. And from the words of TWLOHA, “Love is the movement.”

Scientists send humanity a second notice to save the planet WE’RE HEADED FOR TROUBLE UNLESS WE CAN OVERCOME CYNICISM AND LEARN TO WORK TOGETHER

BY JESSICA DRIVER jmdriver@ucdavis.edu It’s like a bad episode of “Intervention”: 16,000 scientists from 184 countries issued a second “warning to humanity” earlier this month, exposing the consequences of the world’s dependence on pollution-causing industries and hoping that we’ll see through years of denial and broken promises.

William Ripple, an ecologist and professor at Oregon State University, led the scientists’ warning letter, published in BioScience journal. The new warning letter reflects on environmental issues exacerbated by climate change after a first warning letter was published by the Union of Concerned Scientists in 1992. Since then, we’ve continued down the same path of self-destruction. What will happen if we wait another 25 years to contemplate our progress toward environmental stability?

In the Sacramento area, the number of extreme heat days, in which temperatures reach 101 degrees or higher, will increase from four to 17 days per year by 2050. The number of days with temperatures of 95 degrees or higher will increase to 22 by 2050. The area will also experience a “heat-island effect,” which could make temperatures in urban areas seem 10 degrees hotter than rural areas.

And the projections go on and on.

“Uncertainty over the extent of these effects cannot excuse complacency or delay in facing the threats,” the Union of Concerned Scientists said in their letter to humanity.

Unfortunately, we’re still dealing with the same complacency

from policymakers that we dealt with 25 years ago.

White House environmental official Kathleen Hartnett White recently said, “I think we indeed need to have more precise explanations of the human role and the natural role.”

That’s enough to make any environmentalist retire to their hammock with a bucket of Cheese Balls and say, “I give up.”

I’d like to think that our country and its citizens are more analytical and less defeatist about the problems they face.

California Gov. Jerry Brown unapologetically offered the crowds his thoughts at a climate change conference in Bonn, Germany.

“The science is getting clearer and the extreme weather events are getting more frequent. All of that leads to more understanding, more clarity and then more action,” Brown said.

Brown’s right about that. It’s getting harder to ignore climate change, especially after this year’s fires and hurricanes, which explains why the scientists’ message was urgent: “To prevent widespread misery and catastrophic biodiversity loss, humanity must practice a more environmentally sustainable alternative to business as usual.”

The letter may seem to echo similar doomsday sentiments presented by the theory of the planet’s sixth mass extinction, which stirred controversy among scientists for its dire message. But there’s a dire need to address climate change, and scientists are trying to get our attention.

CNN called the scientists’ warning a plea for humans “to change our wicked ways to help the planet.” Their commentary could be misconstrued, however, especially considering recent comments by

Hartnett White.

"There's a real dark side of the kind of paganism — the secular elites' religion now — being evidently global warming," Hartnett White said.

It’s difficult to understand these and similar cynical comments that undermine researchers and environmentalists’ efforts to improve life for everyone.

The warning letter importantly addressed personal decisions, empowering average people to do something about environmental issues.

“It is also time to re-examine and change our individual behaviors,” the letter said.

"We are hoping that our paper will ignite a widespread public debate about the global environment and climate," Ripple said.

The letter — covered by numerous media sources — has encouraged dialogue on climate change. Hopefully, it has also made individuals think about what they can do to mitigate climate change impacts.

“Working together while respecting diversity of people and opinions and the need for social justice around the world, we can make great progress for the sake of humanity and the planet on which we depend,” the letter said.

This is the part we could all take something from: learning to work together despite our differences. We’re faced with divisive politics when we should be coming together, not as the “one-world state ruled by planetary managers” imagined by Hartnett White, but just as average Americans working to reduce our carbon footprints, sorting our recycling and turning off the water when we brush our teeth.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017 | 7

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

What can overcome the secular dismantling of community?

HOBBY, POLITICAL GROUPS SEEM A LOUSY REPLACEMENT. OR ARE THEY?

BY NICK IRVIN ntirvin@ucdavis.edu Of all the intellectual topics thrown around the dinner table or coffee shop, religion is one of the most compelling. Everyone speaks political language these days, and there’s nothing more cliche than opening a conversation — or a column — with a snark on Trump himself. Oh, it’s funny, to be sure, especially because I do a fair bit of it myself. But still.

A conversation about religion, on the other hand, is just more interesting than regurgitated political talking points. Religion packs a lot of stuff into a ginormous box — there are texts to interpret, deities to worship, ceremonies to endure and sermons to hear (or sleep through, depending on the speaker’s drawl or intonation).

About 84 percent of the world’s population holds some sort of religious affiliation, according to a 2012 study from Pew Research Center. Religion is therefore central to many cultures and nations. It can be an impetus for warfare and tribalism, or a catalyst for charity and a certain amount of morality. Religion can also provide an acute sense of community.

Domestically, this past decade has seen Americans leave organized religion in droves. While the number of Americans calling them-

selves religious has been steadily declining since the 1970s, the lack of religious beliefs in younger generations has reached epic proportions. A third of Millennials are religiously unaffiliated, and a quarter say they are “nothing in particular.”

In short, American society is less religious today than at any point in modern history. At first glance, we could congratulate this development. Reducing the influence of religion on decision-making has generally allowed for a more open-minded approach to contemporary issues — think of the recent successes of marriage equality.

But religion’s decline in America might have an unintentional side effect. This is a country where religion (namely Christianity) has generally provided a strong institutional backbone for community vibrancy — a place where people feel they belong. The Establishment Clause of the Constitution has played a supporting role, allowing diverse pockets of faith-based communities to thrive from the Deep South to Utah.

What happens when that social structure begins to crack, as indicated by the ever-growing number of religious dissenters?

In other words, what can replace that sense of community shared by members of a religion?

As a nonreligious person, my business with religion is predicated on what I’m missing. Is there anything that can provide an equivalent

dose of social companionship and existential comfort?

Hobby groups, you say. On campus there are clubs channeling an inner urge to fire fake weapons at other people — meaning there’s probably a hobby group for just about everyone on the planet. Yet it seems flawed to equate the passions of quirky hobbyists with the more transcendental connection that links those of a religious faith to one another.

Political groups and party affiliations, then? There’s nothing like a shared opinion on abortion to bring people together. The problem is, there’s also nothing to feel good about in politics, either. Political talk –– even within carefully crafted echo chambers — is hardly a place for eternal optimism. It’s too divisive.

There’s no denying how these options can bring satisfaction to an otherwise boring life. But they seem to fail where religion is strongest, in providing community-based comfort to people on an emotional or existential level rather than on a completely rational or interest-based one.

Or is this type of comfort even necessary? The rise of scientific enquiry has provided concrete answers to many of the same questions that generated ancient religious beliefs in the first place — Zeus is not the source of thunder and lightning, for example. Many people are unfazed by the thought of dying without an afterlife. To them, comfort through a religious community is unnecessary.

What do you think — can religion be replaced?

HUMOR

White elephant ideas to distract from the fact that men still don’t respect women in the workplace HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO EVERYONE EXCEPT MEN

BY L ARA LOPTMAN lrloptman@ucdavis.edu With the holiday season just around the corner, you’ve probably got a lot on your mind: what gifts to get your family, where you want to travel during winter break and how it’s possible that men still don’t know how to respect women in the workplace.

Thinking about all of these things can take up a lot of time and energy. So in order to get your mind off of the holidays, winter break and

the perpetual gender discrimination that for some reason never seems to be fully addressed, The Aggie has compiled a handy list of cute white elephant ideas you can break out at your next holiday shindig.

An Inspirational Pillow This is a groundbreaking gift that will be sure to momentarily distract you and your loved ones from the jarring realization that men continually view women as lesser beings in the workplace. A super cute quote like “Be yourself, everyone else is taken” will be the icing on the cake. This quote specifically will have a lasting impact on

whomever you choose to gift the pillow to, as most women can relate to wanting to be someone else — like maybe a man, upon realizing how little respect is apportioned to them in commonplace settings.

An Easy Bake Oven This gift in particular will really get your mind off of gender discrimination. It’s a super ironic kind of gift that says “I’m trying to force traditional gender roles on you but in a hilarious throwback LOPTMAN on 11

Turkey survivors of Thanksgiving regroup and plan for counterattack HUMANS ARE ABOUT TO GET STUFFED

BY AARON LEVINS adlevins@ucdavis.edu

JAMIE CHEN / AGGIE

After a very deadly and delicious Thanksgiving, the turkeys who evaded being devoured are now regrouping to strike back against the humans who ate their families.

The turkeys were incensed by the holiday, whose historic origins were not only problematic in their estimations, but also needlessly excessive.

The turkeys are preparing for a full-on assault of downtown Davis, having sent scouts far in advance to scope out the town and find its weaknesses. The types of assaults that can be expected range from overturned garbage cans to the stealing of food from people at restaurants. These turkeys are very angry and very merciless.

One UC Davis student, Brian Smith, had a run-in with these turkeys recently.

“They stole my wallet and lightly pecked my feet,” Smith said. “It was annoying at the time, but became increasingly more humiliating later that night as I thought about the fact that I had been bested by a group of turkeys. I guess that’s what I get for supporting the factory farming industry.

Oh well.”

Davisites are nervous about the impending turkey assaults and so are preparing themselves for whatever the turkeys may bring against them.

UC Davis wants international students for diversity… of income THE UNIVERSITY DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOU

BY DREW HANSON andhanson@ucdavis.edu INTERVIEWER (IN): Hi, Chancellor May. Thank you for speaking with me today. First of all, are there any exciting new plans for UC Davis?

GARY MAY (GM): We’ve been considering moving UC Davis into the middle of the ocean. That way we can call it the International University of Rapture. It would be international to everyone, and we could then price-gouge people from all over the world. It’s the apex of capitalism.

IN: How do you plan on charging people?

GM: We’ve actually started a new pricing method for international students consisting of $100,000 per year for each first-born child, which is a pretty high price to pay for students in a one-child policy country.

IN: Wouldn’t that be a way for students to get rid of their child and then have a replacement one?

GM: Well, the idea behind it is that the children will be owned by the university and will grow up to teach courses in place of current professors — without any pay, though. Plus they will be very grim and bitter, so they will essentially be TAs. IN: Do you have any other plans?

GM: We have been putting some funding into NASA and outer space research in hopes of finding HANSON on 11

DIS CL AIMER: Th e v i ews and opinio n s expre sse d by in div idu al co l u m n i sts b e l o n g to th e co l u m n i sts a l o n e a n d d o n o t necessa rily indic ate t he views a nd opinions held by The Ca lifornia Aggie.

Le tte rs to the editor can be addre sse d to opin io n @ th e a g g i e.o rg .

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8 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

SCIENCE+TECH DIANA LI / AGGIE

NICKI PADAR / AGGIE

cracking the code:

why more women aren’t majoring in computer science Only 24.4 percent of computer science majors are women

BY KR I T I VA RG HE S E science@theaggie.org

There was a time when women were at the forefront of computer science. Many of the first programmers were women. Now, people learn about Alan Turing, creator of the Turing Machine, but forget about Ada Lovelace, the mathematician whose ideas about computing were so advanced it took close to 100 years for the rest of the world to catch up.

“From what I’ve seen in the past, there was actually a large number of women in CS in, I think, back in the ‘80s, and then there was a sudden dropoff,” said Thao Pham, an undergraduate program coordinator and an advisor in the CS department.

“There were supposedly more women PC users back in the day than there were men, and the industry wanted to change that. They wanted to make computers and computer science more interesting to men. So they changed the culture, they changed the way it was presented, and [that] created a shift.

Whatever increase in females that was occurring kind of stalled and then dropped off.”

A recent study showed that in order for a woman to drop out of STEM, multiple events need to occur. It isn’t just a lack of representation or getting bad grades or the perception of STEM subjects individually, but all three at once that can lead to plummeting enrollment.

“You are at the forefront right now,” said Pham.

“You are essentially very much like the civil rights protestors. You are the one that’s going to have to take the brunt of all of the terrible things going on right now and create the change so that it’s better for the future generations.”

Currently, some female students have expressed that they enter the tech field with a feeling of perceived inadequacy and low self-esteem.

“I just had an interview and it was with two male engineers and it was on the phone... I felt intimidated,” said Alisha Nanda, a second-year computer science major and the event chair for the Davis Computer Science Club.

Premkumar Devanbu, a computer science professor, teaches a class that is supposed to prepare students for internships by teaching them vital

technical skills for the industry. However, technical skills are not enough to prepare women for the sexism they face in the industry.

“I think part of it is this mindset that women are quiet, that they are meek,” Pham said. “That’s what [society is] used to. So change what they’re used to.”

Sexism, though it can stem from malicious intent, often signals a lack of awareness that men have of the challenges that women face.

“I can’t speak from first-hand experience on the challenges a woman might face in the industry,” Devanbu said. “I take [it] as a challenge. What can a male faculty member do to prepare women for the kind of issues they might face? I don’t have an answer to that because I don’t really know. I haven’t faced those issues.”

Zhou Yu, a professor in the Department of Computer Science, believes that the best way to make men more aware is simply by telling them, something women tend to avoid doing for fear of seeming more emotional.

“I was in graduate school and I was working on a project with another guy, a friend, and we were talking to the faculty member about how our project was going,” said Nina Amenta, a professor in the Department of Computer Science. “I said something and my partner did that thing where he paraphrased what I just said. And the professor turned to him and said ‘That’s exactly what she just said.’ And I was like ‘Yes! Thank you!’.”

The CS department is actively trying to alleviate the female minority issue by adding two more female professors to their faculty this year, including Yu, who is featured on the Forbes “30 under 30” list for science in 2018. However, that still only brings the grand total of female professors to five out of 40 overall in the department faculty.

“You need to have certain people with more experience, with a similar background as you to form this community, to support each other,” said Yu. “I would say that’s very important. You need to have somebody you can trust to actually see you through the difficulties and give you support and guidance.”

UC Davis has a supportive community that includes clubs like the Society of Women Engineers CSWOMEN on 11

Five alpacas dead from oleander poisoning Unattended brush pile source of deadly July accident at Antibodies, Inc.

BY G E O RGE UGARTEMENDI A science@theaggie.org

Over the summer, five alpacas died at Antibodies, Inc., an immunochemistry products and services provider in Davis, due to oleander consumption. The final investigative report from the company was recently made available by Stop Animal Exploitation Now!.

“We obtained the documents through the Freedom of Information Act,” said Michael Budkie, the co-founder of SAEN. “It was in the possession of the Office of Laboratory Animal Welfare at the National Institutes of Health. We routinely file Freedom of Information Act requests with the federal government to obtain documents like this for every registered research facility in the United States.”

According to the official report from Antibodies, Inc., an employee collected leaves and trimmings into a brush pile near a pasture where the alpacas are allowed time outside. Eight alpacas were able to browse the pile for food on a Friday and ate enough material that four were dead by Saturday morning. A fifth was euthanized later by a veterinarian after it was determined to be too sick to recover. A sixth alpaca survived the poisoning with kidney damage.

The animals were treated at the UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching Hospital. The dead animals were examined and necropsied at the California Animal Health & Food Safety Laboratory, where oleander consumption was confirmed.

Antibodies, Inc. has alpacas at its facility to collect antibodies from their blood for research purposes. Although oleander is normally not accessible to the alpacas in their pasture, the report indicates the trimmings were collected “from an off-site location” into a nearby pile.

“Oleander is very common all over Northern California,” said Dr. Julie Dechant, a UC Davis associate professor in equine emergency surgery and critical care who serves as the designated camelid medical expert. “It’s in the roadway medians. It’s often a border around pastures.”

All parts of the plant, from the roots to the leaves, are poisonous. Oleander is appreciated for its pleasing appearance and use as a windbreaker.

The leaves are bitter, but since the poisonous dose may only be a few leaves, foraging animals can become seriously ill. The heart and kidneys are the organs most severely affected.

“Palatability varies among livestock species,” said Dr. Pam Hullinger, the director of the California Animal Health & Food Safety Lab at UC Davis, in an email interview. “While oleander may not be as attractive to animals as hay or grain, livestock still will consume it on occasion.”

The symptoms of oleander poisoning in livestock are subtle. If an animal is suspected of having consumed oleander, only a few treatment options are available.

“Treatments are usually supportive,” Dechant said. “There is a potential antidote, which is actually for digoxin overdoses, but it’s cost-prohibitively expensive. We don’t stock it, because it is so expensive and clients can’t afford it. Often, we’re giving them activated charcoal, because that will bind the toxin in their intestinal tract. We’ll give them IV fluids because oleander affects the heart, kidneys, and intestinal tract. There are a few other treatments that are also supportive for the heart.”

The best way to keep animals safe from oleander poisoning is to keep the shrubs away from areas where animals can roam. Uprooting existing plants can be proactive.

“As with all plant intoxications in livestock, prevention is the best approach,” Hullinger said. “Unless an owner directly observes their animal eating oleander, oleander poisoning can only be diagnosed by testing for the toxin in the animal (serum, gut contents), animal tissues (after death) or in plant material.”

Allowing animals to die due to negligence in a research facility is a serious issue which requires immediate site changes. Training employees about the dangers of oleander, inspection of the pastures before releasing animals into pens, and sign installations are some of the changes made following the alpaca poisonings. More penalties may follow for Antibodies, Inc. “The first thing that will happen is the USDA will investigate this incident, and they should issue at least one, if not multiple, citations under the Animal Welfare Act,” Budkie said.

MORGAN TIEU / AGGIE FILE

Living a Waste-Free Lifestyle UC Davis moves toward goal of waste-free campus by 2020

BY DYLA N HEN D RI C KS O N science@theaggie.org

It seems that a number of people fully embrace the zero waste trend. One woman dedicated herself to zero waste for four years and the amount of trash that she accrued filled only the space of a large peanut butter tub. Another person tried to completely remove plastic from her life. Meanwhile, one can take a look at a typical college bedroom and see a trash can overflowing with used floss and failed midterms with fuzzy tendrils of mold growth.

However, as daunting as eliminating waste from your lifestyle is, it’s important to start with the small things.

“The easiest way is to make little changes,” said Kelly O’Day, the production manager and sustainability coordinator for the CoHo. “You can’t do everything all at once.”

For example, a new rule was made so that CoHo staff can only get free coffee if they bring their own cups, as opposed to using the normal disposable cups. While this rule only affects a relatively small amount of people, it is a tangible difference and reinforces a culture of environmental thoughtfulness within the CoHo. Many places, including the CoHo and Peet’s, will not only fill your cup with your drink of choice, but

will also give discounts if you bring your own ware.

And while trash is often inevitable while going out, simply being mindful of what you are using goes a long way. Forgoing a paper bag with your to-go order or using reusable bags instead of plastic bags for grocery shopping are just a couple ways to get started.

A big part of living waste free is not only minimizing trash, but also minimizing food waste. Sustainability coordinators on campus are pushing for more people to compost their waste, as much of what we throw away is either food or made of organic materials. However, it isn’t as easy as simply placing more compost bins around campus.

“I tried really hard to get compost bins in the library,” said fourth-year sustainable environmental design major Brooke Garcher. “In theory, [it] sounded like a really good idea, but there’s just a huge educational component; just because there’s a compost bin there doesn’t mean people are going to use with the right purpose.”

She also stressed the cost of maintaining separate trash bins on campus, which have to be serviced differently from normal bins. These two combined have contributed to the limited existence of compost bins outside the CoHo. Sue Vang, the engagement and zero waste program manager in the Office of Environmental Stew-

ardship and Sustainability, also emphasized the importance of trash-mindfulness education, but added that it’s on the university to provide awareness for the issue. The CoHo conducts trash audits to determine how people are sorting their trash, and while the compost bins are for the most part uncontaminated, the landfill stream often contains compostable waste because people don’t know what goes where.

“Signage is very important […because] people are very visual,” Vang said. “If they see a cup, and they see the same picture of their cup over one bin, they think ‘oh, this is the right one.’ But if they have a

cup and the cup in the sign isn’t exactly what they’re holding, then they’re a little less sure of what to do.”

Instances like these indicate that to reach its goal of being waste free by 2020, UC Davis has much left that needs to be accomplished. In the meantime, simply being conscious of whenever you feel the need to throw something away can begin the glacial process of changing your consumption habits.

“Not thinking about your impacts is a big [reason] why people are wasteful,” Garcher said. “As long as you are conscious, [you will feel] motivated to continue.”

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and organizations and encourage the best leaders from those places. I will personally be reaching out and I encourage other senators to look beyond ASUCD and

do the same.”

The newly-elected senators terms will begin in January, at the beginning of Winter Quarter.

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properly prepared for the academic rigor of the university.”

The next two primary findings, according to the presentation slides at the meeting, were that “campuses have invested interest in admitted students and want to enroll them” and that “verification may inadvertently communicate the opposite of a welcoming message.”

The Finance and Capital Strategies Committee discussed the budget and financing for new arts, sciences and housing buildings at UC San Diego. The committee also addressed the delay of a partnership with Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. — a producer of hybrid seeds — due to risk. It also approved the campus-wide 10-year capital financial plan and discussed the future implementation of UCPath — a campus-wide system for managing payroll.

The general meeting of the Regents on Nov. 16 comprised reports from the UC Student Association and approval of items from the Governance and Compensation Committee and National Laboratories Subcommittee, the Financial and Capital Strategies Committee and the Health Services Committee. An increase in philanthropic donations to UC campuses and public involvement with the UC System were also discussed.

During the general meeting, UCSA President Judith Gutierrez brought up the recent allegations against Regent Norman Pattiz and the current lack of UC action.

“I will respectfully ask you to revisit a critical issue regarding the actions of one of your own,” Gutierrez said. “As you’ve seen, it is the opinion of many students that as long as Regent Pattiz is on the board, the UC cannot stand by its commitment to end sexual violence. It has been alleged and, in some cases, recorded on audiotape that Regent Pattiz engaged in sexual violence and brandished a gun at his employees. Survivors of sexual and workplace violence have to go through the trauma again and again knowing that a man voting on their critical decisions affecting them at their university is an assailant.”

Gutierrez continued to elaborate on this issue from the perspective of a UC student.

“We do not take this lightly,” Gutierrez said. “It has been 11 months since the news of the allegations broke. We understand you cannot remove Regent Pattiz outright, but you can care about what this means for the university and for those affected.

On behalf of all of us, and those who have spoke up against this, I ask you to act now.”

In addition to the general board meeting that took place on Nov. 16, a special meeting was held in which UC President Janet Napolitano faced backlash from Regent Chair George Kieffer regarding her recent approval of a plan that interfered with a state audit of her office. According to the Los Angeles Times, Napolitano has previously defended her actions and apologized for the impression that her actions have caused.

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Gardner, the open space land manager for the City of Davis.

In the next few weeks, a community group called

Friends of North Davis Ponds is expected to hold a meeting with the City of Davis to set a schedule and come to terms on the details of the project.

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“I think it does make teaching more difficult, because every class is different,” Lopez Bastidas said.

“Maybe we should be given more freedom to change the syllabus, because sometime you’ll take more time explaining certain stuff, maybe it’ll take you less time to explain something else, and only the instructor knows.”

The UC Student-Workers Union exists to protect the workplace rights of graduate students, including instructors. Wright, who used to be the Davis unit chair of the union, said that the union works to make the teaching experience better for instructors.

“We advocate for things in the classroom,” Wright said. “With our recent contract we won the ability to meet and discuss issues of class size with the university, because class size does affect teaching,

despite the fact that an administrator from UCLA was kind of shocked when we made that assertion when we were bargaining.”

The rights provided to instructors by the union are meant to improve instructors’ quality of life, but also to improve the quality of education for students.

“As TAs, we spend roughly half of our employed hours grading,” Wright said. “Issues of class size, issues of workload sort of impact the kind of feedback and the quality of feedback that we can give to students. If I’m grading for 80 students and there’s the same number of assignments as when I’m grading for 50, then obviously I’m gonna have to cut back on the feedback and things like that […] we’d like to give attentive, quality feedback and quality education and not just sort of push everybody through.”

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Khorsand emphasized that it is the responsibility of students to carefully evaluate the information they find on social media because if they do so, it can open up many doors for discovering new ways of thinking about topics.

“Exposing yourself to opinions that aren’t your own is healthy [...] and can help you learn something new,” Khorsand said.

With such conflicting feelings regarding the ability

to reconcile social media’s usefulness with its addictive power and potential to misinform, these three students effectively demonstrate the many challenges society faces in containing social media as a tool that can be utilized to learn rather than manipulate people. Parker’s statement captures the uncertainty over just how much society’s embrace of social media impacts students.

“God only knows what it’s doing to our children’s brains,” Parker said.

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Gudz’s interests also expand to getting solutions for economic innovation through creating spaceand base-level entrepreneurship, as well as increasing spaces for social services like Planned Parenthood.

They also are the first openly gender non-binary candidate to ever run in a Davis election.

“We’re building a movement that’s fueled by the next generation of Davisites,” Gudz said. “The campaign slogan is ‘a seed for everyone,’ and that means the necessity of including everyone, even those who haven’t been traditionally included. The ability to be able to connect with all that makes Davis what it is, [which] is absolutely imperative.”

The third candidate is Dan Carson, a 30-yearold Davis resident. His campaign focuses on three vital issues: the city’s financial condition, the town’s relationship with the university and sustainability in terms of issues such as homelessness, housing and climate change. Carson worked as a fiscal and policy expert for the state legislature in a nonpartisan and independent office for 17 years.

“The heart of my campaign is to protect the quality of life we all enjoy, and to do that we need to

[be] fiscally stable and we need to address some of the real challenges this community faces including the shortage of affordable student housing,” Carson said. “One of the things I’m going to do if I’m elected to council is to try to establish an effective process for how we deal with this next round of growth in student enrollment and make sure we have a process where everyone is heard and we have a real dialogue that’s created to have a healthy long-term relationship with the university.”

Carson also recognized the high spirit of volunteerism in Davis, proactively working on a lot of these issues, and said that the Council’s task is to ease the burdens of the volunteers and share those appropriately.

“It gets down to the fact that Davis is such an amazing place,” Carson said. “We’ve got all of these passionate and dedicated people here — none of this is accidental. People choose to live in Davis or attend UC Davis in part because of our shared values.”

The election will be held on June 5, 2018. Community members have up to 15 days prior to the election to register to vote.

reduce. reuse. recycle.

The aggie

President Josh Dalavai is also enthusiastic about the app.

“I’d really like to see more student engagement with it, I think that would be the most important thing for me,” Dalavai said. “I think it would make us all happier.”

While the goals surrounding the app are lofty and aspirational, Levi Menovske, the cafe manager of the CoHo South Cafe and diversity coordinator, identified a way in which Tapingo eliminates an opportunity for excellence in service.

“The CoHo South has always prided itself on its customer service aspect,” Menovske said. “We have really long lines and our way of dealing with that is making sure our customers have a great experience with us, that face-to-face interaction with the cashier, and Tapingo kind of removes that aspect of our customer service and I don’t like that about the app. I think our customer service is what makes us so special and we may we have 1,100 customers that come in every day but 400 of those customers come in everyday because of our customer service.

This mobile ordering app is moving away from that interaction where we don’t get to build that relationship with our customers [...] but it makes sense for those customers who just want to come in and get out.”

Not only does Tapingo eliminate some of the excellent customer service cultivated at the CoHo South Cafe and other locations, but its introduction was difficult for the front-of-house staff teams either as they had to learn new skills and incorporate them into their pre-existing systems. The app’s employees, who work out of San Francisco, were able to remedy potential initial difficulties by going so far as to meet with CoHo supervisors via Skype. The app team’s diligence should ultimately allow Tapingo to ease the strain of lunchtime rushes for employees in the long run as it more evenly distributes customer flow.

Nerves have settled since the app officially

launched on Oct. 23, but the question remains: is it worth it to cut down on wait time to optimize our busy schedules at the expense of the interpersonal customer service that set the CoHo and its satellites apart? More simply, does an app like Tapingo practice empathy for the chaos of our busy lives or does it disgrace the very essence of service itself? Schluep enumerated what motivates him to share the app with his community.

“We know that the students today have more and more demands placed on them,” Schluep said.

“I mean our students, we have 400 students working here for the Coffee House and for AS Dining Services and so we’ve seen the demands placed upon them as students at UC Davis go up and up and up.

So this is a way for us, although it’s a small thing, to help in some ways. We want to make the experience as quick and painless as possible.”

In addition to being the first UC to incorporate Tapingo into its dining services, Schluep hopes to ultimately share Tapingo with the Dining Commons and the Silo alike. This step toward increased mobile access to campus services is a goal of Dalavai’s as well.

“I think Tapingo aligns with a lot of the recent initiatives that ASUCD is currently trying to undertake especially in the era of increased student growth as we’re seeing people are feeling the squeeze,” Dalavai said. “I think Tapingo does a really good job to alleviate some of that stress if students get behind it and use it.”

Whether or not Tapingo can solve the crisis of astronomically high student population and its escalating growth aside, there’s nothing like a student’s experienced voice to shine a light on the utility of the app at lunchtime.

“The hope is to have all food service entities at UC Davis utilizing the app at some point,” Schluep said. “There is the hope the entire campus will be Tapingo-friendly.”

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ARTS & Culture famed Berkeley restaurant Chez Panisse. Peternell was inspired by his own children leaving for college — who inevitably asked him for recipes while they were at school. This prompted Peternell to put together a cookbook of simple recipes that are elegant and delicious but also lend themselves to the poor, starving college student. You’ll learn how to make the best toast, numerous sauces, simple desserts, pasta, salads and much, much more.

Even if you don’t love the idea of cooking, I suspect that picking up this book will change your point of view on the perceived arduous, time-consuming task of preparing a homecooked meal.

D E V IN M C H UG H / AG GI E FI LE

Five must-read books during college

Books concerning history, food, fantasy, life experiences

BY ROWA N O’CO NNE L L- GAT E S arts@theaggie.org

Throughout college, high school and even middle school, we have been assigned certain books to read for class. Often times, these works of literature were grandiose in vocabulary, plot and length. Couple that with the era of technology and media that we grew up in, and you get a generation of young adults who aren’t particularly fond of reading books.

But books don’t have to be painful, boring or impractical. In fact, they can be quite the opposite. With that in mind, here are five books I think are must-reads for college students.

“Scar Tissue” by Anthony Kiedis and Larry Sloman: An autobiography of The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ lead singer, Anthony Kiedis, this book follows the life of Kiedis

from his early beginnings. As a young boy in L.A. rubbing shoulders with the likes of Neil Young, Sonny Bono and Cher, Kiedis’s burgeoning musical success soon followed with his internationally-renowned rock band, The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Along the way, his adventures are so outlandish that the reader begins to wonder how Kiedis is still alive.

The book is an exceedingly literal take on the expression “sex, drugs and rock & roll.”

Above all else, Kiedis’s story is perfect for college students. He couples great writing and vivid detail with stories that young adults can identify with. While his adventures may inspire some to pick up the guitar or a mic, for others, “Scar Tissue” is simply an opportunity to learn about just how exciting and crazy life can really be.

“The Brief Wondrous Life Of Oscar Wao” by Junot Díaz: A Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Díaz wrote this fictional story by drawing heavily from his Dominican background. The story begins with Oscar de Léon, a nerdy, overweight Dominican kid living in New Jersey. We follow Oscar through life as he searches for love and acceptance. The book is emotionally charged, causing the reader to travel with Oscar to his highest highs and all the way to his lowest lows. But above all else, Diaz’s unique writing style is what truly draws readers in. Díaz pushes the boundaries of what we expect from successful literature.

He constantly alternates between English and Spanish slang in the story, giving the reader a rare opportunity to completely submerge themselves in the text regardless of cultural background. In addition, at times, Díaz goes so far as to write in the second person, a rarity in lauded literature. One has probably never read another book quite like “Oscar Wao.”

Growing creative writing series starts 2017 strong

BY NI COLAS R AGO arts@theaggie.org

“The Devil in the White City: Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair That Changed America” by Erik Larson: A historical book written in novel form, Larson’s work will trump any history text you have previously encountered. His book alternates between the stories of the famed Chicago architect Daniel H. Burnham and the 19thcentury serial killer Dr. H. H. Holmes. The stories center around the late 1800s in Chica go. After developing a successful architectural career, Burnham and the City of Chicago are chosen to head the building of the World BOOKS on 11

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Alottacappella travels back to the 20s with a Gatsby Winter Night The Liquid Hotplates host annual a cappella show

With Fall Quarter coming to a close, a cappella group The Liquid Hotplates will once again host its annual Alottacappella event on Dec. 2 at 8 p.m. The show will feature other on-campus

Words in the Library The city of Davis rarely fails to impress with its commitment to art, music and other related fields, and the Creative Writers Series exemplifies such commitment. Hosted in the Shields Library, the event ushers in writers, pushing the avant-garde, to exhibit their coming work. The events are scattered throughout the year, but anyone attending these readings can expect to gain insight on storytelling and the Creative Writing Department at UC Davis.

Greg Glazner, the current event manager and a professor of English at UC Davis, talked about the event and what it shows of Davis.

“There’s really a lot of interest in writing at UC Davis,” Glazner said. “The room that we have the event in is always full […] People really do turn out and it’s really gratifying to see that.”

Each event is separated into two components: the reading and a Q&A portion.

“It’s very engaging,” Glazner said. “There is always a Q&A, that’s always part of what we do, and there are always aspiring writers in the audience, a lot of them UC Davis creative writing students.”

Each event shows the multifaceted nature of creative writing through its display of many different writers. There are a variety of genres and works displayed, giving attendees a well-rounded perspective of the field.

“All the events are so different from each other,” Glazner said. “So far we’ve had Danez Smith, who is an incredible performer of his poetry […] then we had the quiet-spoken Tommy Orange, who read from his novel, and the writing was so compelling he had everyone on the edge of their seat. I don’t think there is one specific way it’s going to be, they’re all kind of different from each other.”

“12 Recipes” by Cal Peternell: This cookbook was written by the former head chef of

BY B E C KY L EE arts@theaggie.org

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groups including The Spokes, The Lounge Lizards, The Afterglow, Cleftomaniacs, Levels of Vocal Expression, Cloud 9 A Cappella, Acquire and GGN. Brendan Caskey, a third-year genetics major, is performing in the show with the oldest a cappella group on campus, The Lounge Lizards.

According to Caskey, there seems to be an unspoken rule in the a cappella world that original music should not be the central focus; however, there is a variety of genres that the group performs.

“In the future we might have originals. As for now, most of our repertoire is pop, rock, R&B and a little bit of rap and country,” Caskey said.

Kiersten Allison, a fourth-year animal science major and member of The Liquid Hotplates, believes that covers aren’t necessarily limitations on musical creativity.

The group always takes its own twists to the songs. The most important part of being in an a cappella group like The Liquid Hotplates is the shared love of music.

“Everyone here comes from a musical background, but it’s all different,” Allison said. “Some people are more familiar with playing instruments, and others sing well but can’t read music. There are so many talents in the a cappella scene. We’re not really competitive with each other. It’s really just one big community of singers [who] help each other out.”

Anikka Altura, a fourth-year food science major in the newer a cappella group Cleftomaniacs, also loves the community and musical aspects of a cappella culture.

Like The Lounge Lizards and The Liquid Hotplates, Cleftomaniacs also has a lot to offer in the upcoming show.

“Music is a very large part of our lives, and we invest a lot of time in the music, but we also invest a lot of time

in each other,” Altura said. “We’ve been preparing this show since the beginning of the quarter for about four hours a week. You’ll see a lot of pop and R&B and something a little unexpected as well. It’s our first show of the year, and we want to show people how hard we’ve been working on our music and to just have a lot of fun.”

Through months of practice and involvement in Cleftomaniacs, Altura has realized that the biggest obstacle in a cappella music is also its greatest beauty: it requires many people and many voices. It brings everyone together and makes each session a little different.

“A cappella isn’t going to be the same every time because at the end of the day, we’re all people singing,” Altura said. “We’re all going to make new mistakes each time, and we work to minimize that by working cohesively, but there is a variability that happens in acappella.”

Allison predicts the show will be ‘a lotta’ fun for the audience.

“We’ll have some pretty funny MCs for sure, and all of the groups are incredibly talented and it’s not something you want to miss. It’s also going to be cool to see the Sciences Lecture Hall transform into a concert venue,” Allison said.

Tickets for the event are $8 presale and $12 at the door.

Tabling for tickets and information will take place at the Memorial Union from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

First-ever tight wire course offered at UC Davis A lesson in mind over matter

BY JOSH M A D RI D arts@theaggie.org

For the first time, the Department of Theatre and Dance offered a tight wire course undergraduate students. The course began this fall and has been well received by enrolled students. The course is dedicated to hands-on training and discussions of the anthropological as well as philosophical implications of the tight wire. The concept began as a first-year seminar last year and has since evolved into a full course.

Antes Ursic, a Ph.D. student in performance studies, serves as the visionaire and instructor for the course. He had an extensive career working with the largest theatrical producer in the world — Cirque Du Soleil. Ursic was at the forefront of

the movement to make this course a reality.

He spoke of the marriage between the physical and mental aspects of the course.

“It’s good to have a sense of balance and embodiment,” Ursic said. “The tight wire is a great way for students to understand they can overcome their obstacles.”

A community formed among the students that participated in the course. Ursic explained that the tight wire is able to bring people together regardless of their area of study.

“It’s not about oneself,” Ursic said. “You’re not alone on the wire because everyone is there for you.”

Elena Battas, a liaison for the Theater and Dance Department, uses the the tight wire as a way to prepare for any role that may come her way.

“I love pushing myself physically and seeing

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how far I can go,” Battas said. “As an actor, the course allows me to be versatile.”

Ratnapala K Gamage, a third-year Middle East and South Asian Studies major who is enrolled in the course, enjoys the change from the everyday school experience.

“If you’re stressed, it’s a great positive release,” Gamage said. “It helps me to get away from everything.”

Faculty and students are hopeful that the course is here to stay. The official title of the course is Tight Wire and Thinking. The course runs twice a week for two hours.

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interplanetary students. Imagine how hard we could rail them. The challenge would be getting them past Trump’s planned wall around the Earth. That wall won’t keep out aliens — I mean, interplanetaries — but it will block out the sun, which will really put a damper on our organic, solar-powered death ray.

IN: Do you think that using interplanetary or international students displaces the spots that instate students could be filling?

GM: As the UC puts it, we allocate spots for international and interplanetary students. That way they don’t displace in-state students.

IN: But that is displacement since there is a maximum capacity on class sizes and in-state students might lose their spots to out-of-state or international students. No? GM: No. IN: Explain the diversity spiel.

GM: We are all about diversity until you get to the campus. Once you’re here, we couldn’t care less if you starved to death in the 24-hour study room.

We’ll write your death off on our taxes. But prior to that, we want to have in-state, out-of-state and international students to diversify our income.

Imagine that a state gets destroyed by fracking, lack of nuclear power plant regulations and leaky oil pipelines. Students from that state will no longer be able to contribute to the UC. Imagine Trump levels another country that has many students at the UC. Once the mushroom cloud clears, you see there’s nobody to pay the bills. We send those students back for nuclear winter break. If we truly

cared about them, we would charge them the same rates as in-state students. Catch my drift?

IN: That sounds rather harsh. Does the university create these ideas, or do fascist dictators?

GM: The university lacks creativity in many ways, but not in railing students. We take credit for those ideas. Just look at how we brand on everything possible. You can get our logo on a shirt, hat, sweater — everything. You know what we got your name on? Our list of assets. We would charge both arms and both legs if we could. But then how would you sign the checks?

IN: What is your main inspiration?

GM: The university’s main inspiration is colonization. Go to a country. Take all its resources. Give nothing of value in return. We rewrote that. They come to our country. We take all their resources.

Give nothing of value in return. It’s brilliant.

IN: What do you mean nothing of value?

GM: Imagine you go to a restaurant and order a burrito. Out comes a pile of steaming shit. You ask, “What they hell is this, Chipotle?” The waiter tells you that the burrito is doing research and trying to get grant money, but this steaming pile of shit is very high and very mighty. Additionally, this steaming pile of shit is brand new and fresh, and it determines your grade. Does “TAs in place of professors” sound like “we care” to you?

IN: You’re depressing me.

GM: Welcome to life, kid. It gets worse.

IN: Do you have any final comments?

GM: Do you have any last words?

“The writing was really incredible, and I basically cried the whole time,” said Madeline Bigger, a second-year English major who attended the Nov. 14 reading by Tommy Orange. “The event shows good things about Davis. I’m hoping there are more.”

Melissa Mack, a recent writer at the series, spoke beforehand about which pieces she chooses for a reading.

“Every time I do a reading it’s different,” Mack said. “I really like to share new work. It’s kind of a way of feeling on how I feel on the work, to read it to an audience. But this time I have a book coming out; I’ll likely read mostly from that.”

Mack further mentioned how the environment and her audience affects what excerpts she will read from.

“One thing I will think about is reading pieces

that I think will translate, you know, things people can enter into when hearing it just one time,” Mack said.

Mack, an alumna of the Creative Writing master’s program at UC Davis, is familiar with Davis and commented on the significance of this event.

“It’s really exciting that there is a creative writing series at Davis,” Mack said. “It’s been a while; I graduated from Davis in 2010, so the vibe of the school may be very different now, but the fact that there is still a creative writing series makes me think that there is still an interest in language art. That makes me happy.”

On Jan. 16, poet Mai Der Vang will be presenting. If you like creative writing or poetry, mark your calendars for the always-interesting Creative Writing Series.

BOOKS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 10

Columbian Exposition of 1893. The exposition is a massive undertaking involving numerous other architects and millions of dollars. In addition, it draws in even more individuals who were already flocking to the up-and-coming American city. One of those newcomers is a Dr. H. H. Holmes, who begins to use the influx of tourists for his own unsavory desires. Larson’s work is perfect for any student, especially fans of history, mystery, and murder.

“1Q84” by Haruki Murakami: A fantasy novel to end all fantasy novels. Internationally recognized for his fantastical ideas and stories, Murakami takes his readers to a completely new world in “1Q84.” Set in Tokyo during the year 1984, the story mainly alternates between the perspectives of Tengo Kawana and Aomame.

Tengo is a seemingly unremarkable math teacher. Aomame, on the other hand, splits her time as a gym teacher and an assassin. This unlikely duo slowly see their lives intertwine, and the result is a story filled with magic, culture, cults and characters so strange you may have to read the page twice. The beauty of “1Q84” is that you start believing in the world so strongly that eventually nothing shocks you anymore. It is at that moment that you, the reader, have been fully transported into the tumultuous setting of “1Q84.” Murakami’s most recent novel is the ultimate fantasy, and students looking for an escape from studies and stress should look no further — the world of “1Q84” is waiting, but be careful, you just might never come back.

Pete Souza

Former chief official White House photographer.

FRI, DEC 1 • 8PM

UC Davis Student tix start at $15

The Hot Sardines Holiday Stomp

The Hot Sardines share yuletide classics that evokes New York speakeasies, Parisian cabarets and New Orleans jazz halls.

FRI, DEC 8 • 8PM

UC Davis Student tix start at $12.50

The Mark Wood Experience Holiday Extravaganza

LOPTMAN

This founding member of the Trans-Siberian Orchestra creates holiday magic with the Davis Senior High School Symphony Orchestra and Davis High Honor Choir.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7

kind of way.” Too funny! This subtle, subliminal kind of gender reinforcement from the ‘90s is sure to help you forget that men today still treat women like objects.

A Candle To be clear about this gift, we’re talking about a generic, sad candle — not to be confused with a fancy candle. This is a great gift because it so bluntly tells anyone who receives it that you don’t care about them at all and put little to no thought into

buying this depressing pile of wax. Luckily, this ends up being a good thing because it will help you forget about how men treat women in a similarly careless manner.

The list really does not get any more comprehensive than that. So if you want to forget about the disproportionate amount of discrimination and disrespect aimed toward women in the workplace, be sure to pick up a few candles and pillows this season. :-)

FRI, DEC 15 • 8PM

UC Davis Student tix start at $12.50

Brandi Carlile

Brandi Carlile and her indispensable collaborators, Tim and Phil Hanseroth, a.k.a. The Twins, have always offered listeners both control and abandon, often within a single song.

SAT, DEC 16 • 8PM

UC Davis Student tix start at $21

CSWOMEN

UC Davis students:

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 8

and Women in Computer Science. While it is a difficult endeavour that requires unity, persistence and increased awareness, women have been computer science pioneers in the past and can continue to do so.

“I would say that if you look back in history, there are a lot of amazing female figures in STEM that have faced adversity and that everyone has a moment where they’re like, ‘I don’t want to do this, this is not for me’,” Pham said. “So I would say to them that superheroes might face tough situations.

They might say ‘I don’t want to go to this dangerous, life-threatening situation’ but they do, because that’s who they are. They fight where people can’t...

What if Batman never put on his mask and decided to fight crime? You don’t know that you’re a superhero until you try. So try. And don’t let the world say that you can’t do this...We have a lot of female historical figures who have done incredible things.

That could be [you]. [You] could go down in history books.”

• Your first ticket is FREE! • 50% off all tickets, everyday Restrictions apply. See mondaviarts.org/uc-davis-students for details.

Aggie Run: NOV 16, 2017 5.8125 x10.75

Production: Erin Kelley 530.754.5427

eekelley@ucdavis.edu

12 | THURSDAY,NOVEMBER 30, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

FOOTBALL

ANTIFA

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 2

Perhaps the most surprising teams this season are the two that are fighting for the lead in the AFC South. The Tennessee Titans and the Jacksonville Jaguars both hold 7-4 records and have displayed flashes of brilliance at several points during the season. The Jaguars, for instance, have had several dominating, blow-out victories, including one over the Steelers in week five. The Titans, too, have collected a handful of signature victories, like wins over the Jaguars and the Seahawks. Both teams, however, suffer from inconsistency. Poor play in several games against relatively weak opponents has cast some doubt on whether or not these clubs are ready to return to the postseason. Nevertheless, one of these two franchises is very likely going to

win the division. The question of which team will make the most of the opportunity remains to be answered.

For now, Jacksonville has found enormous success behind a defense that has allowed the fewest per game passing yards and total offensive yards.

On offense, no team in the league runs the ball better, as the Jaguars’ rushing attack has been bolstered this year by rookie running back Leonard Fournette. For Tennessee, defense has also been a bright spot. The Titans are fifth in rushing defense and have the league-leader in interceptions, Kevin Byard, lined up for them at free safety. The teams will meet in Nashville for a week 17 game that could decide the winner of the AFC South.

DUO CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

hard to focus on that kind of stuff because all of our — me and Keelan’s — success that we’ve had so far has a lot to do with the guys around us, our teammates, our coaches, our game plan. You know, all that stuff is far more important and means so much more to us than any individual number.

We’re proud of what we’ve done, but this is such a team effort. Keelan can’t do what he does without the protection upfront. I’m not able to do what I do without coaches calling the right plays. This is such a team game that the individual accolades are not the end all be all for us.

You two have great chemistry. You’ve said that you just clicked. How? Doss: It’s hard to explain because that’s really rare, in my opinion, when you get a quarterback and a receiver on the same page from the very start. I don’t know man, it was just during the summer, I remember we would come out here, work out a couple of times, and there was just a bond there. We felt connected as soon as we got together and started throwing and everything. We just built on that connection into season. We just play football. We don’t think about it too much and that just allows us to go out there and play free and confidently. It allows us to make plays at a more efficient level.

Maier: And to add to that too, a lot of it has to do with the off the field stuff as well. I mean, the film room and understanding what the opponent is doing to us. Me and Keelan spent a lot of time in that area, really game planning on our own time.

What Keelan does is great. He gets open, he catches everything, we all know that. But what people don’t know is that when he comes to me in the middle of the game, he’s telling me what the defense is doing, what coverages they’re in, and he’s pretty much 100 percent right. He’s got the opponent figured out.

Jake, you recently joined Keelan on the Walter Payton Awards list. How do you feel about that?

Maier: That’s a huge honor. That’s something I never thought would ever happen. I always thought that I was going to work extremely hard and try to get to that point and be included in such a prestigious list. To see it actually happening now is just very humbling, you know, just to be on the same list [as] all those talented players. It makes my family proud, it makes me extremely proud. It wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for the team and the teammates that we have, our offensive line, and our running backs. There are a lot of unnoticed things that happen for [Keelan and I] to get to that point. We’re just extremely grateful and proud to represent that school.

Doss: That’s awesome, man. You know, the only reason I’m there is, well a big reason for why I’m there is because of [Jake]. He just puts the ball out there in perfect spots every time and I just catch it. [...] it’s awesome. It’s an honor. I know it’s awesome for both of us.

What’s it like being part of the new Dan Haw-

kins era? How is this season different than your past seasons?

Doss: As of right now, feel like every time a coaching shift happens, there’s a new energy that’s brought with it. You know, I wasn’t here when [former head coach Ron Gould] first got here, but I was for his second year here and there was a lot of excitement around that, as well. And Coach G and the staff were awesome. I couldn’t ask for a better staff to have brought me in here. Coach Hawkins and the new staff, I love them just as much and they’re awesome. I feel like the energy right now is where it needs to be. [...] Winning brings a whole amount of energy that is pretty awesome towards the program. It’s been fun. Coach Hawkins is great, Couch Plough is great, Coach Tolr is great. It’s just been a fun time so far and I hope to keep going.

What is the ultimate goal for you to achieve athletically at UC Davis during your next couple years?

Maier: We want to win a championship here.

Truthfully, that’s really all I want. Obviously there’s other things that come with it, you know, spending time with your boys, bonding, experiencing UC Davis college life, that’s obviously something you’ll never forget and always carry with you. In regards to football and what we do on the field, we want to win a championship. We’ll give all of our efforts and we’ll sacrifice anything to get to that point.

Doss: There’s nothing better than winning a championship, from a Big Sky championship to a National championship. One of my goals, for myself, has been to be legendary. And with that, it’s just in every aspect, just drive for your hardest, to accomplish the impossible. And there’s no reason why you can’t go out there as a team and compete for a national championship or a Big Sky championship. I feel like you all have that mind set and if you do, we’ll achieve that.

What are your plans after UC Davis?

Maier: I’ve always had aspirations to be a coach one day. I think I’d really want to get into that as soon as I can. My family is just a houseful of coaches, I’ve just been around it my whole life. My dad’s a coach and I really look up to him and he inspires me to do that. God willing, if the good Lord says ‘Jake, you’re going to keep playing after college,’ then that’d be one heck of a blessing. I think it’s every kid’s dream, since they’re 10 years old or so, to be on that stage and inspire others to try to strive to do what you do. I have really really big dreams, whether it’s being a coach or continue playing, that’s really what I want to do when I’m done here.

Doss: I want to play in the NFL. That’s been a goal of mine since I was little boy when I first started [playing football]. Hopefully, I’m capable [of doing] that. I feel like I’d play in the NFL at a high level as well so it’d be fun. It’d be interesting.

WBB CONTINUED FROM PAGE 13

little bit, so our focus, we have to be really dialed in.

We know that in order to win on the road, you’ve got to defend, so we’re really focused on continuing to improve our defense and our rebounding and making sure that we’re really locked in there, and then, offensively, we’ve just got to stay loose and play to our strengths.”

The players know that they need to stay focused and work toward their ultimate goal, and while it’s easy to get ahead of oneself, Song intends to keep her eyes on the prize.

“We’re going to win championships!” Song said.

“That’s our mindset, and we’re going to attack every team with all we’ve got, and I’m very confident in my teammates and what we’re going to do this season. I’m very excited for what is to come.”

The Aggies have since gone on to play University of the Pacific, Southern Utah and Seattle on the road and return home with an undefeated 6-0 record. The team aims to maintain this record in its game today against Sacramento State in the ARC Pavilion at 7 p.m in this year’s Causeway Classic.

A full game recap of tonight’s game will be made available in the next print edition.

Bray focused largely on the lack of political unity of the left in 1920s and 1940s Europe in opposing fascist authoritarians like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.

“The rank and file of socialist party was very alarmed by the growth of Nazism, whereas leadership was reluctant to encourage anything outside of the realm of civil discourse,” Bray said. “The leadership thought it was uncivil to mark three downward arrows over the nazi swastika. Until it was really too late, the left in Germany was more interested in fighting amongst itself rather than opposing the Nazis.”

Bray criticized any leftist division causing lack of protest, and said that if “anti-fascists during that era had tried to cater to the perspective of larger London society, Jewish citizens would have been sending letters to [the] government” rather than fighting back against the Holocaust’s doorstep. In his talk, Bray used that sense of political urgency as justification for many modern day anti-fascist techniques in America such as protesting and direct action. He talked about how “countries like Germany, Italy and France responded to a regrowth of fascism and Nazism [by] simply making it illegal,” not by installing actual safeguards against new fascism.

According to Bray, post-WWII racial anxieties in Europe began to shift following Nazism in the 1950s and 1960s.

“The threat from the far right in Britain shifted from targeting Jewish people to immigrants from Africa, Asia [and other countries],” Bray said. “Especially after the Berlin Wall falls in 1989, there is an ultra-nationalist insurgency leading the far right to come out of their holes — there’s threats to immigrants and leftists.”

Bray stated that he views the left as more united now than in his examples of wartime Europe.

“In the big counter-protests in Berkeley or

Charlottesville, there are people in all sorts of different parties that show up,” Bray said.

Connecting disparate anti-fascist techniques, Bray talked about anti-fascism in America.

“It was very effective for the Black Panthers to talk about the fascist pigs in the way that police occupation was similar to occupation in Europe,” Bray said. “The moment that you can see the two struggles intertwined is to start to understand the significance of what’s happening with anti-fascist politics.”

He said that fascist movements stay viable in America through the interconnection of loose right-wing political groups, networks and individuals such as the alt-right.

When asked about how the press has characterized anti-fascism — and characterized Bray himself — Bray said he thinks “there is a tendency by the media to reduce movements to personalities, and I think that is problematic.”

“The alt-right is not right in the sense of morally correct,” Bray said. “How it tries to brand itself is pushing back against what it claims of a stilted, PC, Marxist kind of world. The alt-right is neither alternative nor right.”

Ross Hernandez, a graduate student studying comparative literature, said the right-wing protesters in the room were purposively disrupting Bray’s presentation.

“I couldn’t really concentrate that much,” Hernandez said. “I think he went through the talk really quickly because there was a lot of tension in the room. It’s too bad that those fascists — I don’t know what you want to call them — those gentlemen in the back of the room were intimidating people and sort of distracting. I know there was some people around me that were very nervous.”

Hernandez said he feels it is good to “be open to these ideas and hear people talk about things in a real, historical way.”

13 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

SPORTS INSIDE THE GAME: JAKE MAIER, KEELAN DOSS

I A N J O N E S / AG G I E FI LE

The California Aggie sat down with UC Davis football’s dynamic duo

BY LIZ JACOBSON sports@theaggie.org

Junior wide receiver Keelan Doss and sophomore quarterback Jake Maier were this season’s UC Davis football stars. Both players were placed on the Walter Payton Awards list, and Doss was just named a finalist for the Walter Payton award.

Doss is the new all-time single season record holder for the most receptions in a year and has been leading the nation in receiving yards, receiving yards per game and receptions per game. Doss is the eighth Aggie in history

NFL POSTSEASON PREDICTIONS

to record 1,000 receiving yards in a single season.

Maier, a new addition to the team this season, became the first quarterback in UC Davis football’s Big Sky era to record 3,000 or more yards in a single season.

The Aggies just finished their season with a disappointing 52-47 loss to Sacramento State in the 64th annual Causeway Classic. UC Davis football ended its season with a record of 5-6 regular season and 3-5 Big Sky. The Aggies’ five overall wins are the most the team has won in a single season during its time in the Big Sky Conference.

The Aggie sat down with Doss and Maier to talk about their season, their personal futures and the future of the team.

You both have had fantastic seasons so far — breaking records, leading the nation in statistics.

Maier: For me, this is such a team game that it’s DUO on 12

A LYSSON KO / AG GIE

A look at which teams are poised to make a Super Bowl run

BY D O M I N I C FA RI A sports@theaggie.org

With the final month of another NFL season looming, it’s time to take a closer look at the teams hoping to make a run into the postseason. This year of professional football has been as unpredictable as ever, as major injuries and impressive performances from some unexpected players have made for an exciting season.

Through 12 weeks, five teams that finished in the bottom half of their division last season now currently claim first place. Needless to say, the road to Super Bowl 52 will be full of captivating storylines and new heroes.

The half of the league that has experienced the most change from last season is the NFC, as all four of the current division leaders were bottom finishers last season. The most surprising division leader among them is the Minnesota Vikings, sporting a 9-2 record despite suffering key injuries at the quarterback and running back positions. When quarterback Sam Bradford went down with a knee injury following the team’s week one victory, sixth-year quarterback Case Keenum emerged as the Vikings’ starter. After a rocky start in a week two loss at Pittsburgh, Keenum has since led the boys in purple to an 8-1 record while sporting career numbers across the board: nearly 2,500 yards and 14 touchdowns through the air, coupled with a 66.1 completion percentage.

The biggest factor in Minnesota’s success, however, has come on the defensive side. Head coach Mike Zimmer –– well known for his impervious defensive schemes –– has the Vikings ranked second in the league in stopping the run and fifth in yards allowed per game (total defense). Defensive end Everson Griffen, who is tied for a league-leading 12 sacks, anchors Minnesota’s defensive front that has contributed greatly to the team’s knack for interfering with opposing offenses.

With a full three-game lead atop the NFC North, the Vikings will battle three of their last five games on the road. The offense may face adversity in the final stretch, but the Vikings defense will carry them through the hostile trips to Atlanta, Carolina and Green Bay.

Much like that of the Vikings, the success that the Los Angeles Rams have had this season has surprised most NFL critics. The Rams are led by second-year quarterback Jared Goff, who, despite a dismal performance in his seven appearances for the team last season, has shone under a revamped offensive system constructed by rookie head coach Sean McVay. The youngest head coach in NFL history, McVay has been making waves with his balanced offensive style that features Goff’s methodical passing attack alongside running back Todd Gurley’s punishing ground game.

Goff’s 2,964 pass yards are the sixth most in the league while Gurley’s 865 rushing yards rank third. Fresh off a statement win over New Orleans, the 8-3 Rams are rolling into week 13 with high confidence. Los Angeles will also be on the road for three of its final five matchups, including a divisional showdown in Seattle a week after battling the Eagles at home.

Coming off a week 12 loss in Los Angeles, the New Orleans Saints are still leading in a tightly-contested NFC South. In his 17th NFL season, quarterback Drew Brees has thrown for 3,029 passing yards –– the third most in the league –– but New Orleans is used to benefitting from this seasoned gunslinger. What’s notable is that Brees is finding the fountain of youth by way of a more balanced offensive workload. The Saints can finally run the football successfully, thanks in part to an improved offensive line and rookie running back Alvin Kamara. The athletic youngster out of Tennessee has proven to be a powerful new weapon for head coach Sean Payton’s offense. Kamara has racked up nearly identical rushing and receiving totals, with 546 yards and five TDs on the ground and 548 yards and four TDs through the air. The 8-3 Saints will be continue to be tested in their final five games, two of which are contests against the reigning NFC champion Atlanta Falcons.

How could we discuss the NFC without mentioning the team with the NFL’s best record?

At 10-1, the Philadelphia Eagles have been one of the most dominant teams this season, taking care of business in all phases of the game. The Eagles have the league’s best run defense –– which has been improved

UC DAVIS WOMEN’S BASKETBALL SINKS VIKING SHIP Aggies end three-game homestand with decisive win

BY B RA D L EY G EI S E R sports@theaggie.org

Heading into the final game before its first three road games, the UC Davis women’s basketball team hits the road with a third straight home win under its belt. With 0-2 Portland State coming into town, the opportunity was there to begin the road trip on a high note, and after a close first half the Aggies hit the pedal and cruised to a 79-67 victory.

Despite Portland State’s 0-2 record, UC Davis Head coach Jennifer Gross knew that the team would need to bring its A-game in order to come out ahead.

To Gross, Portland State presented a unique threat which the other teams had not yet posed on the defensive end of the court. “[Portland] State is a challenging team to prepare for,” Gross said. “Obviously they play a lot of zone.

Their offense has a lot of action, and they shoot the ball extremely well, so they present different challenges. And so our focus this week was on continuing to get better ourselves, but also making sure that our team was as prepared as possible.”

It took some halftime adjustments to break the game wide open for the Aggies, but once they built a cushion at the start of the second half, the game was

where they wanted it, and the team began to hit its stride from the three-point line, where they shot a blistering 15-28 from the field. Senior guard Rachel Nagel led the team with six three-pointers on 11 attempts en route to her team-high 20-point performance, a total which she shared with junior guard Morgan Bertsch. Senior forward Dani Nafekh also played a role in the victory, hitting three of her six three-pointers in her 12-point performance.

While the shooting certainly helped the team get where it wanted to be, Nagel was much happier with the work of both herself and of her teammates on the defensive end of the court.

“I’m a defense fan,” Nagel said. “I mean, to me, threes will come and go. Offense, you’ll have ups and downs, but defense is something you can bring to every game, so I rely on that a lot to bring myself energy and the rest of the team energy.”

While the Aggie starters did their best to dictate the game, the bench provided a balanced effort that helped to spark the second-half flurry that would ultimately decide the game. Sophomore forward Sophia Song and senior center Marley Anderson led the bench with six points each, while sophomore forward Nina Bessolo added five points. According to Song, it is important for the bench to prepare for every game, regardless of the minutes that they may or may not play.

“We know we’re ready to play,” Song said. “However many minutes we get, we’re going to go in there

THIS WEEK IN SPORTS

thanks to veteran defensive lineman like Fletcher Cox and Chris Long –– as well as the league’s third best offense in terms of yards per game. Second-year quarterback Carson Wentz is the centerpiece of Philadelphia’s prolific offense, as the man out of North Dakota State has vastly improved upon last year’s performance.

Wentz has thrown a league-leading 28 touchdowns and just five interceptions through 12 games, as opposed to his totals of 16 touchdowns and 14 INT’s in 16 games in 2016.

The Eagles have won by 10 points or more in seven of the team’s 10 wins. Even in close games, Philadelphia has found a way to persevere. The grit of this team will come into play down the stretch as the Eagles will play on the road in their next three games –– traveling to Seattle, Los Angeles and New York –– until they return home for the final two weeks to take on playoff hopefuls in the Raiders and the Cowboys.

Moving across to the AFC, we see that the usual suspects continue to rule atop their respected divisions.

The powerhouse New England Patriots, still led by head coach Bill Belichick and his reigning Super Bowl MVP quarterback Tom Brady, are 9-2 and possess a

healthy three-game lead in the AFC East. Brady leads the league in passing and has helped the Patriots rattle off seven straight victories after beginning the season 2-2. The Pittsburgh Steelers also boast a 9-2 record and a solid grip on the NFC North. The Steelers offense is one of the most productive in the game, which is not difficult to believe when it is led by the NFL’s leading rusher (running back Le’Veon Bell) and receiver (wideout Antonio Brown).

The Kansas City Chiefs have also found themselves once again leading in the AFC West, although narrowly so. The 6-5 Chiefs opened the season with a hot 5-0 start, but have since cooled down to only win one game in the last six contests. Despite a beat-up defensive secondary, expect the Chiefs to remain competitive with an above-average defensive front captained by expert pass-rusher Justin Houston and a rejuvenated rushing attack led by the speedy rookie running back Kareem Hunt. Still, Kansas City will face daunting divisional matchups in three of its final five games, including a home battle against a surging Chargers squad who whooped the Cowboys in Dallas on Thanksgiving.

FOOTBALL on 12

R AU L MOR A L ES / AGG IE

and make a difference, make a spark on defense and hit shots, and I think we’re all comfortable with our role.”

This added depth is huge for the team’s prospects. Gross praised the bench’s performance when comparing to the others in the past.

“This is the deepest we’ve ever been. Sophia is a lights-out shooter. She can come in — especially against the zone, I thought she gave us a nice boost, hit a couple shots, and she’s also a very good defender, and so I think — our bench — everybody has their strengths. I thought Nina [Bessolo] changed the game today. She came in, brought some great energy, got a tip in the press, hit a shot.

So everybody has something just a little bit unique, and depending on the game, we can go with different lineups and bring people in for different sparks and so far they’ve done a great job with that.”

While the team is off to a perfect 3-0, both coaches and players know that competition, environment and the feeling of the game can be quite different when the team plays on the road. Gross is working with her team to make sure that they’re ready for that aspect of the season.

“We did a tremendous job in protecting our home court,” Gross said. “Now the challenge changes a

TO DAY, NOVE MB E R 30

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 6

Women’s basketball vs Sacramento State, 7 p.m. at ARC Pavilion

Women’s basketball vs San Francisco, 5 p.m. at ARC Pavillion Men’s basketball vs Pacific, 7:30 p.m. at ARC Pavillion

WBB on 12

14 | THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2017

THE CALIFORNIA AGGIE

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